Oakland Unified School District

Community Advisory Council (CAC)

DRAFT

May 3, 2010

I.       Greetings, Housekeeping, and Introductions

• The meeting convened at 7:08 p.m. 13 committee members, interested parents, staff, and community persons were in attendance and made introductions.

II.     Review of Minutes

•  The April minutes were read, a vote taken, and the minutes were accepted with the addition of “general” and special education students regarding security guard training, specifically in the Pro-Act program.

 III.    Announcements and Updates

• Sharon brought a few copies of a newer special needs publication called “Dandelion”.
• Family Resource Network (FRN) Newsletter. She pointed out the Father’s support group and Linda added that they have a summer resource guide.
• Legislative Day is tomorrow
• GATE is talking about doing more professional development with the teachers in a more standardized and equitable way.
• Jody London is organizing a district wide parent council for the district, like a PTA. May 8 is the planning meeting. May 22 is the meeting of all the subgroups that have been formed. They are hoping to get a representative from each of the schools in the district. A request was made to have Elizabeth give information from the meeting to one of the members to get it dispersed to the whole committee.
• City of Berkeley summer camp for special needs families
• Update re: teacher/district negotiations. OEA is asking for caseload limits for special day classes.

IV.    Action Plan - Stacey

•  Response to the need to understand and designate roles and responsibilities for the CAC. Drafted an ‘Action
•               Plan’ for 2009-2010
• Outreach committee chair resigned in March and we need to replace her. Stacey and Naomi volunteered to co-chair this committee
• Question about the Local Plan and Sharon explained what it is and what the current updating committee is doing to ready it for next year’s deadline.
• Suggestions and comments for how to make the plan a “useful” document for parents in terms of understanding and how the CAC can impact/comment on this plan.
• Sharon is on the committee and will be the   and Ben volunteered to work on development of an FAQ document to help understanding of the plan.
• Stacey described the possibility of creating a survey over the summer that could be disseminated in the fall.
• Does the committee want to do a survey?  Yes
• It can be as broad or as specific as we want.
• Volunteers:  Katie Barron, Stacey Smith
• Nominating committee will be discussed at the next meeting.
• The committee voted its agreement for the persons who volunteered for the Local Plan, Outreach, and Survey committees.

V.     Program topics for 2010-2011

•  First responder training – Linda Stevens is interested in planning this topic
•  Panel or group of Special Education (SpEd) personnel to answer parent questions
•  IEP process training – maybe partner with DREDF and FRN
•  Interface between medical and special needs kids – Dr. Blaisch
•  How to elicit monies from insurance companies to support issues with SpEd students
•  Psychological evaluations
•  Program Specialists
•  Combine some of the above topics with a booth concept
•  High School/young adult – transition services, drivers license, jobs
•  Keep broad perspective of disabilities

VI.    Community Concerns

• Does CAC have a home for next year? Yes, still in Harper for another year
• Does anyone know a good barber for autistic kids? Several members had suggestions.
• What are the policies regarding contagious, maybe contagious illnesses?

VII.  Next meeting – Monday, June 7, 2010, 7-9 at the Harper Bldg.

•  Special Education Director’s Year End Report

VIII.    The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.                                

                                                                                                                        Shirley Lindley

                                                                                                                        Secretary