Palm SEPAC May 3, 2024 Meeting Notes
Attendees: Susan Young, Erica Melendrez, Rochelle Wright, Hilda Crisantes, Kristina Horta, Reyna Galindo, Jamie Galindo, Olga Hernandez, Maria A'Alba Franco, Maria Perez, Norma Dominguez
1. Meeting dates for next year
A. Mrs. Young shared the revised Educational Partner Group Meetings schedule for 2024-2025. SEPAC meetings were changed to Wednesday mornings per feedback from the March meeting. Also in response to a suggestion from Mrs. Horta in March, a combined ELAC/AAPAC/SEPAC meeting was scheduled for October 1, 2024.
B. Mrs. Galindo appreciated the combined meeting idea. Ms. Horta explained the reasons for adding a combined parent meeting in order to support dually identified students. Mrs. Young added that there are many commonalities between student groups, so a combined meeting could help parents see the power in collaborating to support all students.
C. Ms. Horta noted that the district CAC meetings will be changing to quarterly meetings, so she will try to ensure that the dates for those meetings don't conflict. She suggested adding information about school board meeting dates either to the Palm meeting document or in the principal's update emails so parents are informed.
2. Modernization project
A. Mrs. Young informed parents about the Palm Modernization Project, which is scheduled to begin October 2024. She described the vision for the F Building (the STEAM Innovation Center), the science labs in the G building and center of the B building, and the new ceramics classroom in the G building. She also spoke about concrete improvements throughout the campus. Ms. Horta would like to see a more inclusive space for lunch for students in the mod/severe program.
3. Mrs. Melendrez Update
A. Mrs. Melendrez introduced herself and thanked parents for attending. She thanked the parents who volunteered at the PAAC festival. Mrs. Young said that next year we could have two festivals - one in January to reward PAAC 1-3 students, and one in April to reward PAAC 4-5 students. Mrs. Galindo asked if it would be possible to add more inclusive activities during the festival, or may provide support from Best Buddies students.
B. Mrs. Melendrez is proud of the parents who attended SEPAC in this first year of existence. She wants to grow the program and recruit more parents. She'd like to find volunteers to have an information table at the registration event before school and at the Back to School Night events. Ms. Horta suggested that maybe a district SELPA administrator could come support an information table. Mrs. Young encouraged parents to attend meetings and have their voices heard.
4. Sharing Issues
A. Ms. Horta said that the rotating schedule is not inclusive and gave reasons based on her son's experience. Mrs. Melendrez said the issue needs to go through the site Restructuring Committee. Mrs. Galindo said that the rotating schedule causes stress in scheduling other services, but on the other hand, his son misses different schedules instead of the same one regularly. She suggested that the Restructuring Committee ask students if they want to keep the rotating schedule.
5. Counseling Update and CAASPP Testing
A. Mrs. Crisantes said she was available to hear any concerns about the 8th grade promotion ceremony. She also reminded parents that CAASPP testing is the week of May 13-17. Mrs. Wright spoke about the importance of preparing for CAASPP testing by getting enough sleep and having non-electronic things to do for when they finish the tests. Testing will take place in period 4/5 classrooms, unless students have an IEP that states the accommodation of a separate testing environment. Instructional assistants will be available to support. Ms. Horta suggested that we should create a student advisory group so that they could learn how to review their own IEPs and advocate for themselves.
