← School Committee · 2025-12-16 · School Committee Meeting
Report: Special Education Expense Update
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
r Grigoraitis, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman B Report: Special Education Expense Update The Special Education Report from the packet was reviewed. Ms. Razi-Thomas inquired about the integrated monitoring cycle. Interim Superintendent Berman explained the DESE process, which involves a three-year cycle focused on special education and civil rights (Section B). The district submitted a self-assessment and will receive a final report after January. Today's on-site visit included two DESE representatives visiting six schools to observe programs and classrooms, Thursday's activities will include interviews with educators, administrators, and SEPAC. Ms. Razi-Thomas then suggested inviting the current co-directors to a future School Committee meeting 2 C Vote: FY26 Supplemental Budget Request Finance and Facilities Subcommittee Chair Kelley initiated the discussion on the Supplemental Budget Requests, presented for review prior to a Committee vote. The discussion included: the process for approving the supplemental funding from the override, emphasizing that this vote is for distribution across this year's budget ca
Transcript
▶ 4:39 Speaker 5: Um, thank you. Uh, just a quick one around, um, some of the balances in here. I see there's some FY 25 balances. I just wonder if you could talk us a little bit through, um, how those are closed out and whether those are multi-year grants that are overlapping to fiscal Years. Sure. Thank you. Um, yes. Many of our grants are multi-year, which means there are multiple years as a spending window. And so, um, all of our grants are in compliance. We, all of our spending windows are open. Um, we do monitor that closely through the business office. We have, um, Kim Candelaria is one of our, uh, um, strongest grant, uh, uh, folks. And so she, um, is very good about knowing timelines and letting people know. So we very much appreciate her coordination there. And yeah, all of our grants are in good standing right now. Okay. Thank you. That's All. Okay.
▶ 5:24 Speaker 4: Any other questions?
▶ 5:30 Speaker 5: Mr. Ozzie Thomas,
▶ 5:31 Speaker 6: Um, are, I would like to ask a few questions about the special education expense update. So when we get there, are we there now? Sure.
▶ 5:39 Speaker 5: People are ready to go there.
▶ 5:40 Speaker 6: Um, so I would like if, um, superintendent Berman could explain the integrated monitoring cycle and what's gonna happen today that there were two representatives from DSI that'll be onsite looking at our programs, um, our specialized programs. So can you explain what they're doing and, and what we hope to get out of it?
▶ 6:03 Speaker 3: Sure. Um, so our integrated monitoring cycle, um, occurs every three years. So we're in section B, um, of this. So three years ago we did, um, the, the a part of it. So, um, b looks at, um, special education, um, as well as some small parts of, of civil rights. So we submitted a self-assessment on that. We did get some feedback on that, and we'll be getting a final report, um, after January. So today, this week was our onsite visit, which is actually only a day, even though they, they tell you it's a, it's a week long onsite visit. So they were here visiting, um, some of our programming, some of our special education rooms, some of our rooms, um, where we service our students, um, our multilingual language students. And, um, they visited six schools, um, today. So they visited Hoover Middle School, high School, Roosevelt Franklin, and I'm missing one Horseman. Um, horseman. Yes. Um, so, so there were two representatives on site, um, asking, um, or I guess visually taking in, um, that piece. And then on, let's see, Tuesday, on Thursday, they will be conducting interviews with some of our staff, um, our educators, some of our administrators, um, they'll be speaking with our CPAC, um, I believe one of the co-chairs. And, um, some other people, they also put out a survey to our, um, parents of students with special, um, needs. And, um, they get feedback from them as well. So we will get a report after the new year, which will then, um, guide us and hopefully we do very well.
▶ 7:43 Speaker 6: Great. I would love to, to, I know we, me, we mentioned this I think at the last meeting as well, but I'd love to have the current co-directors come in and share that report with us and talk about, um, their vision or what they're seeing within the district. Almost like consultants, since they're here for just one year, if we could kind of get a sense from them and from this report, how we're doing and how we can do better. Sure. Thank you. I'd love to see the self-assessment too. Did you guys do a self-assessment? Is that what you
▶ 8:13 Speaker 3: Said? So we, we did do a self-assessment. Yes. We, we actually, they gave us some initial feedback on that, and we actually did very, very well where we were meeting all of our requirements. Um, there was like one, um, they don't call it a potential finding, but they, they give you some feedback and then you can resubmit before the end of January. Mm-hmm. Um, so it's like they have some questions about where we are in the process, so,
▶ 8:36 Speaker 6: And then they come see you, you know? Yep.
▶ 8:39 Speaker 3: And then they come and they visit and so, but, um, so far we're doing pretty well on meeting all of our requirements to date. Good.
▶ 8:45 Speaker 6: Thank you. You're Welcome.
▶ 8:48 Speaker 5: Mr. Harbin, a follow up question to that. You mentioned there's, there's different stages. We did a a couple of years ago, now we're in B. Is there a C or What are the It's just A And B.
▶ 8:56 Speaker 3: So three years late from now. We'll also we'll engage in a again. Okay. Mm-hmm. Alright. Thank you. And if they do have any findings, then they have, you do like progress monitoring. Mm-hmm. Just like we do with our students, you come up with a plan, um, and then you have to submit evidence to show that you're making, um, progress toward any of the things that weren't meeting requirements. Mm-hmm.
▶ 9:13 Speaker 5: Have we completed everything from the A cycle or are we still
▶ 9:16 Speaker 3: Yep. Okay. Yep. And we did also did very well on that. Great.
▶ 9:18 Speaker 5: Thank You. You're Welcome.
▶ 9:20 Speaker 4: Okay. Any other questions about these two items? Nope. Um, I think normally we vote to accept the budget report it, I think with the new, um, system, we've lost that. So, uh, the way it's listed. So let's do a vote to accept the, uh, monthly budget.