As was communicated in an e-mail this morning to all Heartland staff, Grace Bargstadt, current Partnership Director for Region 8, has been named as the new Director of Special Education for the Agency.
The District Services Council (DSC) provided input for the criteria used to guide the decision making for the hiring of this position. The DSC criteria indicated that they preferred an internal candidate who had general and special education experience, commitment to the partnership model, a deep knowledge of special education, a temperament to deal with tough issues, an understanding of special education at a district level, a legal background, a disposition to connect well with the special education team and across workgroups and someone who would be well respected by all agency stakeholders. Ultimately the decision, using these criteria as well as consideration of other sources of input and factors, was made by the Executive Council.
Grace’s skills and experiences reflect a strong match with the criteria considered for this position. Grace started her career with Heartland in 1995 as a Zone Coordinator and has also held positions as Regional Coordinator and Supervisor and currently as Partnership Director. Her special education background includes being an elementary level teacher for the deaf, a speech-language pathologist, early childhood home intervention teacher and an early childhood 3-5 year-old teacher.
Her administrative background has included being a building principal for the Bellevue, Nebraska Public Schools, assistant director of Special Education for an intermediate education agency in Nebraska and designee of AEA Special Education Director for 10 years, where she gained experience in complaint mediation and due process challenges. Grace’s large repertoire of experiences and superior knowledge of special education issues will help her work with all of Heartland’s staff to continue our work in this area of the Agency.
Many of you know this upcoming year will present certain challenges for special education. Accreditation, compliance and new procedures, among other things, will keep us extremely busy. In regard to these challenges, special education may need to look different in the future. As a team, we all own some responsibility for the success of special education. As we go forward, it is important for all of us to positively impact the future of special education, and we look forward to doing this in collaboration with Grace’s leadership.
Click here to listen to an audio message from Grace.
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