End of Year Good News Report for Special Education and Student Services in 11-12

End of Year Good News Report for Special Education and Student Services in 11-12

I have now been the Director of Student Services/Special Education for the Medford Area Public School District since 2004.  Over the past 7 years, I continue to be amazed at the quality of the people who work in our special education and student services programs and our regular education staff who teach our students with disabilities.  Our students lives are forever changed when our staff teach them to read, learn how to do math, develop functional skills, make good choices, have a smile brought to their face, and graduate from school.  I send my sincere appreciation and gratitude to each of my staff for their hard work and passionate caring nature for our students.

We had many new and exciting events in our Special Education and Student Services Programs in 11-12.  Here are just some of them that deserve mentioning:

We had an excellent freshman class of new special education teachers and support staff hired in 11-12.  I thank them for them for all their efforts.

Our Special Education Advisory Council helped sponsor for the first time Special Education Family Days including a day at the movies and snowshoeing.

We are in our second year of the Medford Adult Diploma Academy.  By end of this summer we will have 3 more adults who will graduate with a high school diploma.

We have 100% of our students at the Alternative High School currently employed in the community. 

Kris Brandner, Misty Galli, Ann Jochimsen, Kathy Schumacher, and Joyce Woletz will be finishing their Wilson Reading Level II Certification which was a three year process. 

Wilson Reading instruction is now offered for students with disabilities in every school building.

Wilson Just Words instruction was offered for adults through a collaboration with the Taylor County Literacy Council.

Wilson Reading trainings were held for staff on a monthly basis.

Spring Fling Dance for Grades 7-12 students in special education sponsored by the Medford Morning Rotary Club

Pre-Kindergarten Program held monthly Families Being Involved Workshops for children and parents.

Educational Technology and iPad trainings were held on a monthly basis for regular and special education staff.

Autism Resource Team meetings were regularly held.

We had 53 people at our first ever Round Table of Community Providers

There were 51 people at Dr. Laura Shank’s presentation on Current Research for Children with Developmental Disabilities

A Family Reading Night was held at MAES

Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports model is being implemented with fidelity at MAES and SES

We had over 30 regular and special education staff attend a Sign Language for Educators Class through NTC.

Voyager Math Live was provided to any students at the middle school level who had a need or were interested.

Taylor County Literacy Council was re-formed by school district and community members

Our EBD resource program at MAMS is now in their 5^th year and continues to deliver services for at-risk and special education students.

School Based Mental Health Counseling services were offered for first time.

Home-School Resource program provided gifts to families who had cancer at Christmas time.

Our Adaptive Physical Education Classes continue to be offered for our students with significant disabilities.  Thank you to our instructors for their work with our students.

Job Placement employment opportunities at Black River Industries were offered for 5^th year seniors in special education.

Week of the Young Child activities in April were planned and organized for families to participate in across the county.

Picture Exchange Communication System was taught by our speech language pathologists and special education staff for students with communication challenges.

Cross-Categorical model of service delivery was implemented at MAES. Thanks to our elementary special education teachers for their implementation of this model. 

Alternative High School Paraprofessional Kellie Keene completed her regular and special education teaching license while working full time over the past several years.

We added a School Health Assistant Program at MAMS for the first time. 

Multiple teachers are starting to use blogs and websites to increase communication and awareness of classroom activities with their parents.

We have 117 parents, students, community, and staff who are following our Special Education and Student Services Facebook page

This year our special education staff was deeply saddened by the passing away of Chase Reid during this current school year.  Chase was an incredible individual who touched and inspired many lives.  This summer a tree will be planted in his honor and memory on the MASH grounds.

We are fortunate to have band and music teachers who continue to provide opportunities for our students to participate fully whether it is at the school assembly, in class, or Very Special Arts trips to Madison at Camp Randall.  One of these performances was a middle school student on the autism spectrum performing “Another One Bites the Dust” in front of the entire MAMS student body two weeks ago.