Macon Reporter

Macon-Piatt Special Education District Board met Thursday, Dec. 15.

Here are the minutes as provided by Macon-Piatt Special Education District:

MACON PIATT SPECIAL EDUCATION DISTRICT (MPSED) REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES - December 15, 2016 Richland Community College / National Sequestration Bldg - NSEC 121 & 122 Decatur, Illinois

The meeting was called to order by Mike Williams at 7:37 a.m. Member roll call was taken.

Members Present: Damian Jones, Sheila Greenwood, DeAnn Heck, Brett Robinson, Mike Dugan (all 12 present) (co-interim), Jeff Holmes (interim), Mike Williams (Chairperson), Dan Brue, Vic Zimmerman (Vice Chairperson), Travis Roundcount, Bob Meadows, Kristen Kendrick-Weikle

Members Absent: None

Also Present: Kathy Horath, Sarah Evans, Vickie Vieth (Secretary), Matt Snyder, Jill Reedy,

Bret Hitchings

Public Participation: None

The minutes were emailed earlier for review. Hearing no questions, concerns, or corrections of the meeting minutes, Supt Jones motioned to approve the Executive Board minutes from the 11/15/2016 meeting as presented, seconded by interim Supt Brue. Voice Vote: All in favor

Called to Closed Session at 7:39 a.m. by Supt Robinson and seconded by Suptzimmerman to discuss possible litigation, appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees. Voice Vote: All in favor Returned to Open Session at 7:44 a.m. by interim Supt Holmes' motion, seconded by Supt Roundcount. Voice Vote: All in favor

Roll Call Action items

A. Personnel and Administrative Appointments

After discussing current vacancies, the SEAP teacher vacancy is the one in which most concern was expressed. A decision will have to be made if a qualified person is not found. We have until mid-January to make a final decision.

Hearing no further questions or concerns, Supt Greenwood motioned to recommend the Executive Board advise Decatur Public Schools, as administrative district for MPSED, that the employees presented be recommended as listed, seconded by Supt Heck. Chairperson Williams. called for a Roll Call Vote. The motion carried with (11) Ayes: Jones, Greenwood, Heck, Robinson, Dugan, Williams, Brue, Zimmerman, Roundcount, Meadows, Kendrick-Weikle. (O) Nays; (1)No Vote: Supt Holmes stepped out of the meeting for a phone call while this vote was taken.

B. Proposed Formula for Determining Member District's Proportionate Share of Operating

Expenses The packet contained a revised proposed formula. In general, everyone was in favor of breaking out the cost of Futures and not using the collapsed program cost. Ouestions were raised why the pre-school IDEA grant is not allocated in the same manner as the IDEA grant. The state is moving toward this method to make sure the districts get their fair share allocation.... why not include the pre-school IDEA grant. Currently the pre-school IDEA grant goes to give a price break for students attending Pershing. If it was allocated differently and for such a little amount, Kathy is not sure we would be able to help with Writing sub-grants for pre-K. This would also mean MPSED would have to monitor and track 24 different subgrants. Supt.Jones motioned to recommend approval of the proposed changes to the formula for the FY18, seconded by Supt Meadows. Chairperson Williams called for a Roll Call Vote. The motion did not carry since it had less than 80% approval with (4) Ayes: Jones, Robinson, Williams, Meadows; (8) Nays: Greenwood, Heck, Dugan, Holmes, Brue, Zimmerman, Roundcount, Kendrick-Weikle; (O) Absent We will be taking this back to the finance committee for further discussion to be brought back to the next meeting. There was extensive discussion regarding this proposal after the motion failed. Majority present wished to see more information regarding the PreK aspect. Supt. Williams made a motion to approve the formula, amended to reflect the removal of the PreK aspect to be voted on a later date. This motion was not seconded.

C. Contract for Board Certified Behavior Analyst (Laurie Fitzwater)

This is a new agreement to work with Baby Fold. This BCBA has more expertise at working with structured teaching. She will be looking at extreme autistic behavior in the Elem. LS/ES program.

Supt Brue motioned to recommend approval of the one-year contract behavioral consultation services from The Baby Fold for the remainder of the 2016-17 school year, seconded by Supt Holmes. Chairperson Williams called for a Roll Call Vote. The motion carried with (12) Ayes: Jones, Greenwood, Heck, Robinson, Dugan, Holmes, Williams, Brue, Zimmerman, Roundcount, Meadows, Kendrick-Weike. (0) Nays; (O) Absent

D. Contract for independent Occupational Therapy Evaluator (Mindy Borden)

The structure of our administrative agent requires all outside contracts to be approved which is why this contract is coming before the board. Supt Holmes motioned to recommend approval Contracting for an independent Occupational Therapy Evaluator for the evaluation of one student, seconded by Supt Brue. Chairperson Williams called for a Roll Call Vote. The motion carried with (12) Ayes: Jones, Greenwood, Heck, Robinson, Dugan, Holmes, Williams, Brue, Zimmerman, Roundcount, Meadows, Kendrick-Weikle. (O) Nays; (O) Absent

E. Contract for Independent School Psychologist Evaluator (Lori McKenzie)

Supt Heck motioned to recommend approval contracting an independent School Psychologist Evaluator for the evaluation of one student, seconded by Supt Kendrick-Weikle. Chairperson Williams called for a Roll Call Vote. The motion carried with (12) Ayes: Jones, Greenwood, Heck, Robinson, Dugan, Holmes, Williams, Brue, Zimmerman, Roundcount, Meadows, KendrickWeikle. (O) Nays; (O) Absent

Director's Report

A. Finance Update: Cash balance is low...no personnel payment has been received yet. Also included in your packet is Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) that Decatur's board entered into with their union group. It has to do with filling vacancies with internal Subs when a Sub Could not be found. One is for retired teachers filling a vacant position stating they will be paid by their educational level instead of a flat BS level. There will be 3 daily rates for these retirees. Our School Psychologists are now in the highest paid bracket of a retired teacher. The next MOU has to do with internal Subs. Decatur's Contract never allowed teachers to be paid if they worked a class period during their prep time, but now they will be paid an hourly rate if a teacher steps in and gives up their prep hour. The other piece which impacts our SpEd program is at the elementary level or a self-contained level. If there is no sub, students are divided up into groups of 3 or 4, and sent into another classroom within the same program. The 'sub' classroom teacher(s) would receive compensation which could become quite expensive. Kathy has a meeting with the union to clarify Some of this language regarding SpEd and Self-contained because of the impact to the cost of our program if this continues.

B. Needs Assessment Survey: This used to be very basic but have added a few more questionsmostly how they service students and what curriculums or interventions. This is to help us for Professional Development purposes what might be Some needs to address the following year. The Survey will be through google.

C. New Developmental Delay Criteria: The revision brings us up to speed with age 9 (instead of age 7) for developmental delay. The criteria of having delay in two areas is still required (typical development, Cognitive, communication, social/emotional and adaptive) but the delay is now 1.5 standard deviations rather than 2 national norms. We are hoping to provide more services at a younger age So that we can address the need early...allowing Pre-K, Kg, and 1 grade students to move into general education. This was led by the School psychologists which then needed the approval of all service related providers (SW, Speech, OT/PT). Early Intervention (EI) does supply us reports and they use a 30% for their eligibility. If somebody is coming through El, we will use those reports and be able to use our professional judgement if they meet that Criteria.

D. Changes to Harris Life Skills (RISE): Looking at the ES/LS programs at Harris and Parsons, it was targeted that we have some kids with more significant needs in Communication, social emotional, and more OT sensory needs. These are typically (but not necessarily) kids with eligibility of autism. We would like to cluster students with more significant needs to a teaching environment with more structure. This will be Created from one of our own current classrooms and it will be called RISE (Reaching Independence through Structured Environment). This will all be ‘in-house' looking at resources, our own OTs, Speech, SW, and teachers, and what services we can provide. The class size will be smaller (up to about 6) and it will start in January. We are starting with 3 students that are already currently in our program that have been identified with more needs. The class will have two TA's with one teacher. It will be setup with structured teach learning environments containing various areas such as: sensory, pre-voc, and academic. It has been shown by research that this environment works very well with students possessing those particular needs. To help build the capacity of all teachers in their programs along with their TAS, we would like to provide training on Decatur PLC days to all of our PreK-12 Life Skills and Essential Skills teachers. They will be going to an autism overview, functional Communication, love and logic. This training should bring up the level of service that we provide all of our classrooms so that kids don't have to go into this program to get that. As soon as the location and times of the training is solidified, Sarah Evans will send information. All people we are targeting will go through all three sessions - we are hoping to divide people out into 3 strands running each of those days. f the numbers are available, it will be opened up to Social Workers and Cross Catteachers. Those individuals will need to receive approval from their building and SpEd Administrator before being placed into slots.

Adjournment: Supt Holmes motioned to adjourn this meeting of the Macon Piatt Special Education District Executive Board, seconded by Supt Kendrick-Weikle. Voice Vote: All in favor- Meeting adjourned at 8:39 a.m.

Handouts: Draft November Minutes (electronically sent)

November Vendor Checks (electronically sent) Personnel Appointments Treasurer's Report Proposed Formula for Determining Member District's Proportionate Share FY17 Budget Cost Comparison with Grant FY17 IDEA Part B Allocation Chart Baby Fold Contract

Independent OT Contract Independent School Psychologist Contract Developmental Delay Criteria

**Next Meeting of the MPSED Executive Board will take place Thursday, January 19 at 7:30 a.m. in the Richland Community College National Sequestration Building in rooms NSEC 121 & NSEC 122.