Laura Gillon, Chief of Staff, presented a review of answers to some special education questions that have been raised at past board meetings. This included information around autism and challenging behavior services and funding for special education.
She then presented Grace Bargstadt, Heartland’s new Director of Special Education, to the Board. Gillon gave the criteria on which Bargstadt was chosen and a review of her background. Bargstadt talked about her passion for special education and shared with the Board her vision for Heartland’s special education services.
Board member Margaret Borgen then reviewed the top five to six legislative priorities for 2009-10. The Board discussed the priorities and asked Borgen to re-write them with the Board’s suggestions.
Brenda Gustafson, Director of Communications, gave an update on communication goals for the Agency.
Dr. Alecia Rahn-Blakeslee, Program Assistant for Innovation, and Dr. Brad Niebling, Alignment Specialist, presented the Board a review of the evaluation framework of Instructional Decision-Making (IDM). This is unique for the services offered by Heartland. They talked about IDM being synonymous with school improvement and increasing student achievement.
Currently, there are 34 districts and 78 buildings (54 elementary and 24 middle and high schools) using IDM, which the Agency began supporting during the 2005-06 school year. These numbers speak to Heartland’s commitment to serving all students. IDM provides for the unique needs of each student. It is about a seamless system where the core is preventative (all), supplemental (some) and intensive (about serving the needs of a few students for longer and specific needs).
To correctly implement IDM, it takes a strong commitment from our schools including six days of professional development for an IDM Leadership Team. Schools also take a readiness survey to see if they have things in place to facilitate using IDM. Heartland has 67 staff members serving as external coaches – this helps to bring information to the Agency to see how things are going day-to-day.
Dr. Rahn-Blakeslee and Dr. Niebling also indicated that it is a goal to get to the use of data in real time so students can be helped immediately. They have compiled a great deal of information that is shared with schools through a CD.
The Board then went into closed session to discuss personnel matters. After the closed session, the Board also discussed a plan to announce the new interim chief administrator by the end of the week.
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