News

Friday, June 25, 2010

Special Education Stakeholders Workgroup accomplishes formidable tasks

The Santa Barbara School Districts had a special education study conducted in spring 2009 by the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) – with a final report provided in June 2009, outlining 153 recommendations. In August 2009, the board approved convening of a Stakeholders Workgroup to “to review the categories of recommendations, consolidate any duplicates, identify possible entities for implementation, and establish a suggested priority timeline.” The workgroup has accomplished these tasks and more.

Approximately 30 workgroup members included self-selected participants representing board members, parents, principals, special and general education teachers, nurses, psychologists, speech pathologists, instructional aides, resource agencies, and organizations. Efforts of the workgroup were facilitated by a cross section of district-level department managers from educational services, fiscal services, personnel, and special education. The workgroup formally met eight times and conducted three community input meetings to hear from parents of children with special needs and interested community members about restructuring ideas for special education. District staff was available to respond to specific questions that participants had about their children.

The workgroup sorted the FCMAT recommendations into 16 different categories; duplicates were consolidated and persons responsible/target dates for implementation were identified. Major themes highlighted by the workgroup included vision, communication, organizational structure, programs/ services, and professional development. Subcommittees were created for each priority area; these groups met separately to identify goals, objectives, required actions, target audience, responsible entities, needed resources, target dates, and evaluation indicators. Based on this input, a “priorities plan” was developed, presented to the workgroup, and accepted by the board on June 8, 2010. The board approved a long-awaited vision statement for students with disabilities on May 11, 2010.

The workgroup has done an outstanding job in addressing the August 2009 board directive. However, the workgroup believes that more specificity is needed in identifying entities for implementation and establishing priority timelines. On May 24, 2010, the workgroup approved completion of an action plan within three months, using subcommittee members as resources. This action plan would outline all essential elements/tasks and persons involved in the implementation of the prioritized FCMAT recommendations as well as evaluation indicators and/or desired results. On April 19, 2010, the workgroup recommended hiring a project manager. On June 22, 2010, Eric Hancey was board approved as the districts’ action plan manager. He will use project planning software “Concept Draw Project” to determine all essential elements involved in implementation of the action plan as well as track progress, completion, and/or results of specific tasks. He will establish communication processes with persons responsible to implement action plan components.

The Stakeholders Workgroup process has been a most noteworthy endeavor and all members are to be commended for their commitment of many hours of meetings along with lots of follow-up work in order to grapple with the lengthy list of FCMAT recommendations. However, the work is not done. As needed, the subcommittees will continue to meet and the Stakeholders Workgroup will serve as resources to staff. On June 22, 2009, the board approved a transition plan which acknowledged the Stakeholders Workgroup has formally met its original goals set by the board in August 2009 and that the Stakeholders Workgroup members will be resources to staff and the workgroup will be updated as needed during the 2010-2011 school year.