Medfield Special Education Presents End of Year Report to School Committee

Medfield’s SEPAC told the School Committee during its end of the year report that its main objective "was to evaluate and revamp the way meetings were conducted and make them purposeful for members."

“Among our goals are to provide information to our members to bridge communication between school and community and to support one another within the district,” Kate Tormey, president of Medfield SEPAC, told the School Committee at Monday’s meeting.

SEPAC Committees were formed to target areas that were of most interest to parents and the results showed speakers and workshops were the main need, according to the report.

Tormey said one of SEPAC’s greatest accomplishments this year to help achieve parents’ needs of more workshops and speakers was being awarded a grant to make costs for those events affordable.

“The grant that our Grant Committee applied to [that will] enable us to have more workshops and speakers was passed.

In March, ALEC (Autism Law Enforcement Coalition) speaker Bill Cannata, a Westwood firefighter, joined Medfield Police Chief Robert Meaney Jr. and Medfield Fire Chief William Kingsbury to “bring [the] police force up-to-date,” train first responders and educate “what we can do to keep our children safe and help first responders care for our children if needed,” Tormey said.

A follow-up to that March meeting was held on May 7 at the Medfield Police and Fire stations, sponsored by SNCARC.

“Paperwork was available to fill out and parents were able to attach photos of their kids to help the Medfield first responders know the identity of the children,” Tormey said.

Also in May, SEPAC hosted Tracey Stroll, the director of Social Thinking Group of Westwood.

“This was largely attended by a lot of families with special needs and without,” said Tormey. “Just trying to navigate our kids through some sticky social situations that may arise.”

Tormey reported the winter weather caused a “kink” in the schedule as many meetings throughout the winter months were cancelled due to snow and as a result the end of the year came upon the group “quickly.”

SEPAC also went over the new bullying policy and greeted the new Special Education director, Matt LaCava. Tormey said SEPAC is already looking forward to next year.

“We’re very excited,” Tormey said. “We’re looking forward to a break but we cannot wait for September to start up again because we are going to be looking to increase a membership with the community a lot more.”

All meetings will be held at the Memorial School teachers’ room and the group meets every third Tuesday of the month, beginning in September. 

Check Medfield Patch Thursday  for the end of the year report of the Department of Pupil Services.