{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 1, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\n1. ROLL CALL\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: The meeting, the Commission on Disability on Wednesday, November\n28th, 2018. Laura, would you like to do the roll call?\nVice Chair and Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Present.\nAnto Aghapekian: Present.\nLeslie Morrison: Present.\nJennifer Roloff: Here.\nChair Elizabeth Kenny: Present via telephone.\nArnold Brillinger: Present.\nLaurie Kozisek: Okay, not present is Lisa Hall and Susan Deutsch.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. We'd like to extend a warm welcome to our newest\ncommissioner. Leslie Morrison.\nLeslie Morrison: Thank you.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So glad you're here.\nLeslie Morrison: I participated in the earlier meeting last time, online but I couldn't speak. I heard\neverything that was going on, I watched what was happening.\nLaurie Kozisek: Madam Chairman, we now have, Susan Deutsch has arrived and I also forgot to\nmention that Jenny Linton is not here.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay.\n2. MINUTES\n2-A\nApproval of Minutes for the September 12, 2018 meeting\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Alright, we're going to move on to item number two, minutes. Do we\nhave approval of the minutes from the meeting on September 12, 2018?\nAnto Aghapekian: So moved.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, do we have a second?\n03/13/19\nPage 1 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 2, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nSusan Deutsch: Second.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. Susan.\n[Discussion of audio difficulties]\nJennifer Roloff: Before we vote on that, Leslie it does say that you attempted to teleconference in,\nbut you were unable to do SO.\nLeslie Morrison: That's correct. And then I watched it live on the web.So I was present, I just\ncouldn't actively participate so I don't know how you want to record that.\nJennifer Roloff: Yeah. I don't know if we want to record that in the minutes as such.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, so we have approval of the minutes by Anto and then the\nsecond by Susan.\n3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGEND (PUBLIC COMMENT)\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: And we'll move on to number three oral communications, any public\ncomment other than our speakers today? Okay.\n4. NEW BUSINESS\n4-A\nVictoria Forrester, Director of special Education, AUSD\nMental and Emotional Wellness Needs Assessment\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: We're going to move on to new business number four A, we have\nVictoria Forester Director of Special Education from the Alameda Unified School District who will\nbe speaking to us about mental and emotional wellness Needs Assessment.\nVictoria Forester: Actually I am doing the strategic plan for special ed. And my colleague Jody\nwill be doing the needs assessment.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay sorry about that.\nVictoria Forester: That's okay. Here it comes, that is the beginning and then I'll let you know when\nMy name is Victoria Forester, the Director of Special Education for Alameda Unified School\nDistrict. I began in this position at the beginning of last school year and prior to that was the\nDirector of Special Ed and Student Services in San Leandro Unified. But I've taught in this district\nprior since I was 20 years old, for 22 years, and this is my 34th year in public education. I'm happy\nto be here this evening and share really wonderful news with you around our special education\nstrategic plan. I'm assuming I have about 15 minutes, two hours. Just kidding.\n03/13/19\nPage 2 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 3, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nVictoria Forester: So prior to this position being open I was doing a favor for Kerstin Zazo who is\nthe Chief Student Support Officer and I was bringing, it was a kind of a consultant to work on the\nstrategic plan for Alameda Unified. And so I came and facilitated the plan and we began in February\nof that year. And then the position was posted and I became director in July. So I've worked on this\nplan for a little over a year. You can see that the stakeholders were varied in our plan, we had\nparents, and community members, and Gen Ed teachers, and psychologists, support providers, and\nspecial ed teachers, and certainly site administrators, and district administrators. You'll notice my\nname isn't up there because I was the consultant that was facilitating the work.\nVictoria Forester: The history of our work, often times school districts who are having difficulties\nin some fiscal area will ask for FCMAT to come in. That's Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance\nTeam. Usually they study two departments within the district, the Business Department and the\nDepartment of Special Education. And in Alameda's case it was the Department of Special\nEducation. So FCMAT comes in, and they study everything about special education from a deficit\nmodel, they're looking at things that don't work. They're not going to comment on things that are\nworking well.\nVictoria Forester: Many school districts who pay for FCMAT to come in, they take the report, they\nreport on it to the board, and they put it in a white binder on their shelf. And as an ex-school\nprincipal, those are kind of our trophies, those white binders. And they never get read. Alameda\nchose not to do that. And the board asked us to create a planning team and to address the issues\nwithin the FCMAT report. And so this team was put together by Kerstin Zazo. And actually parents\nand teachers and staff had to apply to be a part of this team. And we engaged in 10 sessions more\nthan 20 hours of work to create the strategic plan. And the School Board charged us with very\nclearly that we needed to define a service delivery model for students with special needs that is\nfacilitated by high quality teachers, supported through active engagement in the least restrictive\nlearning environment and monitored by multiple measures of student achievement. And so board\nsaid, put together a team and address this, this is your charge.\nVictoria Forester: And so tonight, I am going to share with you some highlights from this special\neducation strategic plan. I am going to show you the actual plan, and then I will share with you\nbriefly the next steps in the work that we're engaging in this year. Special ed program beliefs. It\ntook at least four sessions, not complete sessions, but four times we kept coming back to our\nprogram beliefs. And I won't read them to you. You can take a look at them. They're pretty strong\nprogram beliefs, they talk quite heavily about integration, about equity for students with disabilities,\nand about training, particularly of our staff and teachers and principals.\nVictoria Forester: Our mission is an amazing mission and it begins with the mission of the Special\nEducation program and yet you could take that out, and you could say the mission of the Alameda\nunified school district, because it's that chunky and that wonderful in partnership with families and\nthe community is to support, prepare and empower our diverse learners in a least restrictive most\ninclusive environment that is safe, culturally responsive and academically rigorous, and that is\ntaught and supported by highly trained professionals so that each student can participate\nmeaningfully and excel as contributing members of our community. Again, that should be for every\nstudent. And it certainly is in Alameda Unified, that's what we are working toward. So I'm not going\n03/13/19\nPage 3 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 4, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nto have you do small group work, we had five program priorities and our program priorities we call\nchapters. And that sounds lengthy, but each chapter is one page long. The entire strategic plan is\nnine pages. It isn't found in a white binder, it's actually written to be used. And so I'll share those\nchapters with you, I'll show you the plan and then I will tell you the next steps.\nVictoria Forester: Sorry, I need to go back one. The first program priority is looking at\nintervention and identification. So we wrote goals and strategies around how do we intervene for all\nstudents before they are assessed for special education services. And how do we properly identify\nstudents who need extra help. So the first chapter is all about intervention and identification.\nVictoria Forester: The second priority is actually defining our program, our service delivery\nmodel. How are we going to serve the students all the way across the district, from age three all the\nway to age 22. Because in Special Education, we serve preschoolers all the way up until the age of\n22. Or a culminating event such as graduation from high school.\nVictoria Forester: Program priority three is our systems of support, we have invested time, energy,\nbrain work and money into a multi tiered system of support, and within that system that\nencompasses General Ed, kiddos as well as special education kids.\nVictoria Forester: Leadership and communication is chapter four. How do we go about engaging\nthe community, engaging teachers, staff, parents and students into all of the work. And how do we\ncommunicate this. So this is my fourth stop on a road show about the strategic plan, and we are\ngetting to anyone who will be willing to really engage in this work. I have met with parents, and\nteachers, and principals, community members. Because my desire in this work, we talked in the\nstrategic plan about our destination for this work. Our destination post card. And mine is to be the\npremiere district in special education in the next five years. Lofty goal, one I believe in, one I\nbelieve we can do, and if we work through this three year plan, we will get there.\nVictoria Forester: And the last thing is the most boring chapter for most people, but it is where my\njob lies. And that is in monitoring and compliance. Of course special education has more rules and\nregulation than any other part of education. Special education also is the most highly litigated legal\nwork in the nation. More so than litigation around homicide, and crime, and burglary. Litigation\naround special education law. So I have become in the last five or six years in special ed, quite a\nlawyer. I know a lot about the law and a lot about compliance and this is something we need to\ngrow in, in this district. That which gets monitored gets done.\nVictoria Forester: So the strategic plan is actually a glossy beautiful nine-page document that will\ngo out to every family in the district, both in online, sent in an email and also in paper copy. Again,\nit's supposed to be used. So it's the second attachment on your agenda. Oh, okay, yeah, that's it, isn't\nit cute? So again, and if you'll just scroll a bit, you'll see the beginning that I have already talked\nabout, our strategic plan members, some actual pictures of people doing the work, and if you will\nscroll down to the next page, here you'll see the first chapter, you'll see that every chapter has a\ngoal. Every goal has strategies and every strategy has action steps. The action steps are the\ninteresting part, right? That's the part where we have to do something to make the strategy and the\ngoal happen.\n03/13/19\nPage 4 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 5, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nVictoria Forester: And if you could stop it just right there, perfect. Systems of support, you'll see\nthat each page is a chapter as I explained. And each chapter has goals, then a strategy to support the\ngoal. Strategy number one in systems of support is to develop and implement effective procedures\nand protocols with fidelity, right. And certainly as we go through this plan, you'll see that it is costly.\nThere are things that we need to do that cost money. And School districts always have a difficult\ntime with budget. Our school district in particular has approved this plan, the Board of Education\nhas, and adopted the fact that it's going to cost some money as we go through this process.\nVictoria Forester: In the long run it will save the district money, because we are doing things right,\nand that's the point of this. Past chapter five, you'll see at the end of the plan the next page is a\nreference and literature page. Every reading that we did, every scholarly piece of work that we read\nis listed right here. If you go on our planning team web page on the Alameda Unified School\nDistrict website you will see the work week, or month for month that we did. And you can look at\nall of the data that was collected. It really is a very transparent process. And if you'll scroll down\none more, the glossary. I can speak in full paragraphs using acronyms. And no one understands\nwhat we're talking about and I often hear from my son around the dinner table, \"Would you stop\ntalking Special Ed?\". Because we say the ELCA brought us the IEP, which kept this with FCMAT.\nSo the glossary is there for folks that don't speak that highly acronym language to figure out what\nwe're talking about.\nVictoria Forester: The very last page is just a mailing sheet, if you fold the whole plan in half, you\ncan't see the last page because it's not on here, then you can put a mailing label and put it in the\nmail, so it's a very usable plan. So what's next for our work this year is a three-session steering\ncommittee. Again, we have put together a strong committee of stakeholders that includes parents, as\nwell as educational professionals. And we've actually asked a couple of high school students to be\na\npart of our work as well. And our job, the steering committee's job, is to give my team the feedback\non where we're accomplishing things within the strategic plan, and where we need more work. We\nwill meet three times this year and three times next year. And in the third year, my goal is that we've\naccomplished everything in the plan, or almost everything, and we have to go back and write a new\nplan. That is the goal. It's a three year plan. Our steering committee will begin, gosh, week after\nnext, and we will have a meeting in February as well, and then another meeting in April. With that,\ndo you have questions about our strategic plan or anything about special education in the district\nthat I could answer?\nLeslie Morrison: I have a couple of questions. You said it's a three year plan.\nVictoria Forester: Yes.\nJennifer Roloff: So, is that school year? Should I wait?\nVictoria Forester: Yes, except for I have a couple of questions.\n[more audio difficulties with the teleconferencing]\n03/13/19\nPage 5 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 6, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nLeslie Morrison: Okay. So you said it is a three-year plan. Was that sort of a school year, and did it\nstart in the fall of '18? What's the time frame?\nVictoria Forester: Great question. The plan was approved by the school board last spring. And so,\nyes, the work started with the '18/'19 school year. And there are many of the strategies in the plan\nthat we've already tackled like we are working on it. That's going to be one of those things where\nwe say, \"We're getting there here.' But then there's a lot of things on the plan, many strategies that\nwe haven't even begun to tackle yet. And as I go around and talk with teachers, both general ed and\nspecial ed teachers, they say, \"Well, there's a lot on here you haven't done. It's a three-year plan and\nit really is about we. All of us doing this work.\nLeslie Morrison: So within the three-year plan, do you have one year goals that you've set to\naccomplish?\nVictoria Forester: So that's part of the work that the steering committee is going to do. In the first\nmeeting, they are going to be using a template for the work to continue. They're going to see what\nwe're already tackling and getting close to really implementing, and then they're going to come up\nwith a second square of strategies that are most important to tackle next. And that's how we'll go\nthrough it. There are some things that are more costly or that take longer to implement. And so\nthose will be in the third box as we go along.\nLeslie Morrison: And you talked about fidelity. I am wondering about the fidelity of the strategic\nplan to the findings in the FCMAT.\nVictoria Forester: Yes. So the chapters really are the titles that the FCMAT report was broken into.\nThese are the areas that need improvement. And so we took the FCMAT report, and we turned that\ninto the chapters of the strategic plan. And before we did that, we actually took a look at As a\nstrategic planning team, we took a look at all of the data that we had. It was dead on. The other\nimportant thing to know is that the state of California also has a strategic plan, the Department of\nEducation has a strategic plan for special education which they adopted in 1718. And if you look at\nour plan, and you look at the States plan, we're addressing the same issues. These are issues across\nthe state, and they're issues across the nation. We're just deciding to really go hard and make a\ndifference for kids. Other question?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Go ahead Commissioner Roloff.\nJennifer Roloff: So I have a couple of questions that are just sort of clarifications I am looking for,\nand then maybe a bigger one at the end. FCMAT, is that a third-party private company that the\ndistrict pays for?\nVictoria Forester: Yes. And many districts across California have used that process. And, again, we\njust decided to, since we were getting the feedback instead of just setting it aside and saying, \"Well,\nwe're doing well enough,\" we said, \"We're going to do something about this.\"\n03/13/19\nPage 6 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 7, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. And with FCMAT are there competitors? Can you pick different\norganizations to use than FCMAT?\nVictoria Forester: There are different FCMAT teams, and I'm not sure how Alameda went about\nthat choice because I wasn't an employee yet.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, got it. Let's see. Oh, when you say that you're looking for Alameda to be the\npremier destination, distinction for special ed, is that a real distinction? Is there an association\nwhere we can receive awards, and accolades?\nVictoria Forester: Well, certainly within the state of California there are some markers in which\nyou can say, \"Dang, we're doing really well.\" But the way that the strategic plan kind of framed that\nwas we were studying best practice from three school districts in the state, and then three school\ndistricts across the nation. We want to be written about and studied in that way. So one of the school\ndistricts Was it back in Vermont? And I can't remember the name. We want to be that school\ndistrict? And that's kind of how we framed the destination postcard.\nJennifer Roloff: Got it. Is there any way to differentiate what districts are falling behind in\naddressing the needs of special ed versus districts that are thriving? Is there a ranking or do you get\nreviewed every so often?\nVictoria Forester: Really good question. There's several different ways, but right now the state of\nCalifornia has what's considered its dashboard for achievement. And that's a place where you can go\non the CDE website, look up \"Alameda unified,\" and you can find out all about our assessment\nscores, our achievement. And within that there are scores for our special education students\nachievement as well as discipline scores as well as broken down according to race, and ethnicity, or\ndisaggregated. I can tell you that currently Alameda Unified is very close to significant\ndisproportionality in the area of discipline for students with IEPs. Which means we have a lot of\nstudents mostly in high school who are being suspended, who have IEPs.\nVictoria Forester: You can go further down and look at that based on race, and ethnicity, and you'll\nsee more disproportionality. And we're not the only school district having those issues, but it's\nsomething that this strategic plan is hitting head on. That's just one indication of where we are in\nour special education in terms of doing well or not doing well. If you look at achievement scores on\nstandardized tests, you'll see that our students with disabilities are struggling compared to our\nstudents in general education. We are not doing worse or better than most districts in California, but\nthat's not good enough.\nJennifer Roloff: And then Jody is presenting another piece.\nVictoria Forester: Jody is going to be presenting on health and wellness, and a needs assessment.\nAnd, yes, the two come together because if we just deal with special education by itself, we'll never\nget anywhere. It needs to be integrated into every bit of work that we do. And so you'll start to see\nthat with Jody's presentation as well.\n03/13/19\nPage 7 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 8, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nJennifer Roloff: Okay. So maybe I will save my question for after.\nVictoria Forester: I'd be glad to come back.\nJennifer Roloff: Yeah. It will be for both. Okay. So I will wait on my final. Okay. Thank you.\nVictoria Forester: You bet.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Does anyone else have any questions?\nAnto Aghapekian: Did you say 36 years you've been in education?\nVictoria Forester: Thirty four.\nAnto Aghapekian: Thirty four. That's fantastic. Thank you.\nVictoria Forester: Thank you.\nAnto Aghapekian: And I have just clarification. Does the state or the federal government give you\nany funds?\nVictoria Forester: That is an excellent question and one that's killing me lately. Yes, we receive all\nof our funding from both federal dollars as well as state dollars. I can tell you that both are abysmal.\nThe cost of Special Education is higher than the cost of educating a general ed student. Many of our\nstudents are medically fragile. They may need extra support behaviorally, and all of that costs\nmoney. Currently, the federal government is funding based on the 1970s way of figuring out how\nmuch each school district receives for special education funding. Let me remind you it's 2018. So\nwe are poorly funded in this state from the federal government, and our state is not stepping up to\nfund special education either. And I use the word abysmal. However, I also am in front of the State\nlegislature quite often saying \"Hey, we got to do better for our kids. We've got to do better for our\nschool districts.\"\nAnto Aghapekian: Okay. And the next question I have is, does the Alameda Unified have a person\nor a department that looks after the site, the schools and the physical plans to see if the buildings\ncomply with ADA standards?\nVictoria Forester: Yes. So we have a significant maintenance and operations department. And part\nof their work is to make sure that our buildings are ADA registered. We cannot do any new building\nwith having that pass through ADA law. And our bathrooms need to be a certain size. We need to\nhave ramps getting up to schools. And I know in the last three years we've done a lot in Alameda\nUnified to modernize our buildings with that, with students with disabilities and families with\ndisabilities in mind.\nAnto Aghapekian: And the last question I have is, if a student enrolls no matter what age but they\nhave a special need that the district doesn't have, what do you do? What does the district do?\n03/13/19\nPage 8 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 9, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nVictoria Forester: Sure. The law says that we have to provide free and appropriate public\neducation for every student and we have a large variety and a spectrum of classes to meet kids\nneeds in Alameda Unified. But if we can't provide free and appropriate public education then we\nlook to other districts. I have partnered with our SELPA districts like Berkley or Albany or\nPiedmont to see if there is placements, and then I've taken some students of theirs. And then there is\nalso non-public schools that if we can't provide FAPE, Free Appropriate Public Education, then we\nreach out to a non-public school. Families do not pay for that. School district funds that.\nAnto Aghapekian: Thank you.\nVictoria Forester: You're very welcome.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Anyone else? Otherwise, I have a few questions Just one question.\nCan you talk about maybe one or two tangible measures of success, whether it be improved test\nscores, or graduation, or something that you're trying to achieve from this master plan?\nVictoria Forester: Absolutely. There's a couple of things that pop into my mind. I would like to see\nour general education teachers and, again, that is my background. I'm a credentialed general ed\nteacher. I would like our gen ed teachers to have the knowledge and ability to teach any student that\nis in their classrooms so that we can achieve more inclusion of our special needs students. That's\nnumber one. Number two is I would like to see less qualification for an IEP or special education\nbecause we're serving our general ed kids better. Every kid with an IEP starts as a child in general\neducation. And so those are two ways that I would like to see us achieve. And the second way, of\ncourse, saves the district a lot of money. I am passionate about equity for our students, and believe\nthat our kids with IEPs, with special needs, really are a part of that equity piece. And they need to\nbe included, and have access to core curriculum. The more we do that the higher those test scores\nwill get.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: I was just wondering on the five levels of your strategic plan, where\ndoes What level does a student get assessed for an IEP?\nVictoria Forester: That would be in chapter one, in identification and intervention, right? How do\nwe identify kids who need special education services and we assess in all areas of suspected\ndisability to qualify a student. But before we ever do that, we engage with our kids in forms of\nintervention. So, small group intervention, a child we think they may have a mathematics disability,\nbut before we qualify a student and put them through assessment, we put 'em in a small group, and\nwe really hammer them over the head with some math instruction, right? If that doesn't work we go\nto tier three where we do more individualized service. And still if the student is presenting with a\nlearning disability in the area of say math, then we do the assessment.\nLeslie Morrison: Yes. So the second measure that you had described, I wasn't quite tracking what\nyou said, can you explain that again? So one was about training teachers in gen ed to work with\na\nbroader range of students. And the second one had to do with qualifying for an IEP. Can you just\nexplain that one again?\n03/13/19\nPage 9 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 10, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nVictoria Forester: Right. So, if we do a better job of teaching all students then we will qualify less\nstudents for IEPs. And so that qualification goal is not about not giving kids what they need, it's\nabout giving kids what they need at an earlier or lower level. I'm a firm believer in early\nintervention. We have very strong preschool programs that give kids what they need from a very.\nFrom three years old. The law says that we must find every child in our school district who may\nhave a disability. And so we begin working with kids as early as two and a half.\nLeslie Morrison: So, you had also mentioned a couple of measures on the dashboard where\nAlameda has opportunities for improvement. One is discipline and expulsion. Kids with disabilities\nhave a higher rate and\nVictoria Forester: It's suspension. Not quite expulsion.\nLeslie Morrison: So are some of those also measures that you're looking at, that you're looking to\nimprove?\nVictoria Forester: Absolutely. We have a full integrated plan with the county of Alameda around\ndisproportionality particularly looking at the discipline of students with disabilities, and even one\nlayer deeper African-American students with disabilities. And so that plan with the county really\nfeathers into our strategic plan to improve across the board.\nLeslie Morrison: And when you talked about lowering the number of kids on IEPs, where do 504\nplans come in?\nVictoria Forester: Section 504 is for general ed students with a handicapping condition. So as a\nschool principal, I once wrote a 504 plan for a kid that broke his right arm during testing time.\nYou'd have to bubble in, and he couldn't do that. So we wrote a short-term 504 plan for that. Many\nkids have 504 plans for health issues, for ADHD oftentimes. And it still comes under the umbrella\nof the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's not directly related to my department. Jody is in charge\nof 504s but certainly, as I stand here and say every kid is a General Ed kid first, many kids with\n504s eventually become kids with IEPs. But 504 plans are often seen as lesser than. That is just not\ntrue. It's all under the same legislation. It's all under the same law. And so a powerful 504 is\npowerful if you put it into place. And that goes to fidelity.\nLeslie Morrison: It's certainly my experience that oftentimes kids start off with 504s and then\ngraduate to IEPs. So I was wondering if you have some targets around 504s like you do with IEPs.\nVictoria Forester: Again, just giving kids what they need within the 504. From my own personal\nexperience, my son holds a Section 504 Plan. He has obsessive-compulsive disorder, super bright\nkid. And he was fine through middle school and in high school, and I'm a 504 lady. I'd have to bring\nthe 504 plan pretty much to every one of his teachers, and really advocate for him because he wasn't\nable to advocate for himself yet. And that is where we need to get better so that everyone\nunderstands what kids need, and how to give kids what they need. And then he doesn't need to have\nan IEP if his 504 plan is put into place. Does it help?\n03/13/19\nPage 10 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 11, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nLeslie Morrison: It does.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much.\nVictoria Forester: Thank you all. I appreciate it.\nLeslie Morrison: And I just have a question. Will we at some point have an opportunity to hear\nhow they're doing? In a year or two, will there be an opportunity to come back?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: That would be great if you would be happy to come back.\nVictoria Forrester: Yes.\n4-B\nJodi McCarthy, Program manager, Student Support Services, AUSD\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: We really appreciate that. And you'll stick around in case we have\nmore questions. Alright. So Jodi McCarthy, thank you so much for joining us. She is the Program\nManager of the Student Support Services at Alameda Unified School District.\nJodi McCarthy: And I'm talking to you about the needs assessment that Alameda Unified\nconducted last year. We took a real comprehensive look at the behavioral health needs of our\nstudents, because we were seeing a lot more reports of students being 5150 for suicide ideation,\nstudents needing more support with 504s around anxiety and depression, and eating disorders, and\nsome mental health, behavioral health things that were going on. So what the district did last year\nwas, took a really comprehensive look at all of the kids in our district from elementary school to\nmiddle school up to high school. Oh, and I have it. I've got it. Hang on. Let me see if I can do this.\nOkay, here we go. So, the purpose and the goal of the needs assessment was to really analyze what\nwe were doing well, and what we were missing. We took a look at it through a deficit model much\nlike Victoria was talking about. We wanted to see where the holes were, and how we can help kind\nof support and fill those holes. And fill the needs that our kids need because all kids need to learn,\nand they need to be able to thrive.\nJodi McCarthy: The needs assessment is 50 pages long, and I'm not going to do all 50 pages. It\ncontains all of this stuff. It has everything that we did. We did online surveys with all of the\nstudents, we did online surveys with the staff, and online surveys with the parents. We did focus\ngroups with fifth graders at a few of the elementary schools. We did focus groups with a girl's group\nand a boy's group at the two middle schools. We did four focus groups with students at Encinal and\nAlameda High. We looked at African-American students, we looked at the high-achieving students,\nstudents with a 4.2 or above. We looked at a girls group, and then a boys group. So we picked those\nfour different focus groups, and had about a dozen kids in each of the groups that we did at the\nvarious schools. We did focus groups with parents through the after school program. We did the\nmost, I think, that we could do. We thought of everything. That we had partners with Girls Inc. Girls\nInc. came in and helped us run a bunch of the focus groups. So as many of our community members\nthat we could touch, we tried to get that information from them.\n03/13/19\nPage 11 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 12, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nJodi McCarthy: And then additionally, we also took a data from the Healthy Kids, the California\nHealthy Kids Survey, that's given to students at the end of school year. So, the report has all of these\ndifferent categories. There's an executive summary, and we looked at seven findings. We looked at\nthe tiers of support that we have at our schools, how we coordinate our practices, what the school's\nresponsibility is, the district capacity, cultural responsiveness of the district. We looked at our\nschool-based health center. There's a school-based health center at each high school site, one in\nAlameda High, one in Encinal, and one that serves like ECLC and that community, and ASTI and\nIsland.\nJodi McCarthy: We had a couple of things that fell into another category, and you'll see what those\nare. I'll tell you those in a minute. Then we looked at the next steps. We came up with a list. There\nwere 21 no-cost recommendations, things that we could implement right away that didn't have any\ncost. It's in the full report. In the report there's also a budget that we would need in order to really\nadequately address all of the things that we found. And then there's a list of references.\nJodi McCarthy: So what I'm going to do is give you just key findings of the seven different\ncategories that we looked at. And I'm just going to highlight a couple of them out of each category\nbecause some of it is like school talk it, and it's not very exciting. So one of the things I think that is\nimportant that was a key finding out of the three tiers of support, the tier one is all everybody. The\ntier two system of support is groups of students, and the tier three support is individualized support.\nJodi McCarthy: So we looked at all of the tiers. We looked at what are we doing for everybody,\nwhat are we doing for groups of kids, and what are we doing for individual kids. And what came\nout of the findings of that section of it was that we need more help, we need more staff, more\nspecialized staff to deal with things that are going on with our kids' needs. There's a critical need to\nincrease partnerships with mental health providers in our community. And we need to integrate\nthem better. We need to be able to communicate with those different partners better. There was a\nlarge group of parents that didn't agree about the consequences that were given to kids, whether it\nbe suspensions or referrals, that it wasn't fairly enforced across the school. So there was like an\nequity piece that came out of that that we're looking at.\nJodi McCarthy: Parents, students and staff all believe that there's a lot of work that needs to be\ndone in fostering a sense of community and A sense of belonging-ness at all of our schools we're\nworking really hard on that, right now, through restorative practices and the last couple of bullet\npoints is that the students really reported a lot of problems dealing with stress and anxiety, feelings\nof sadness and hopelessness and suicidal thoughts which we knew because there's been an increase\nof risk assessments done with our kids from the counselors and the school psychologists.\nJodi McCarthy: Drug use, and abuse is also a big problem on our campuses not just our high\nschool campuses. Vaping is ridiculous right now. Key findings that came out of the coordinated\npractices surveys were that the systems of behavioral health support vary site-by-site, a lot of that\nhas to do with funding and the populations of those groups. Some of our West End schools have a\nhigher Medi-Cal and free reduced lunch population, and there's a lot more services that you can\nbring into schools like that, because some providers can only bill for Medi-Cal students. Some of\n03/13/19\nPage 12 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 13, "text": "teachers, like the teachers didn't really understand all of the different pressures that they were\ndealing with and they needed to be more understood and have more compassion.\nJodi McCarthy: The curriculum needs to be more culturally responsive. And then another thing\n03/13/19\nPage 13 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 14, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nthat we're working on with our human resource department is that because it was across the board,\nthe students, staff, and families, all of them felt that there was a need for a more diverse staff. So we\nneed to see more people that look like our students, teaching and in admin roles across our district.\nAccess to the school-based health center at our high school sites. This was fun to talk about with\nour high school kids. The kids believe that the Health Center really is maximized. There's a lot of\nservices that the health center offers, and it ranges from mental health, behavioral health services,\nfrom counseling, to condoms and birth control and reproductive health and physicals for sports as\nwell as like immunizations. The school-based health center offers a lot to our kids, and there's kind\nof a stigma associated with using the school-based health center. It was one of the biggest barriers I\nthink that came, that the kids reported.\nJodi McCarthy: Some of the kids didn't want to be seen walking into the school-based health\ncenter because \"Johnny is going there for you know what, because him and Debbie are going to go\nunder the So there's like this teasing and stigma, I guess, is the best word to describe it, around\nusing the Health Center because they're teenagers. The thing also that was reported by the kids was\nthose who were seeking counseling services. There's often a wait list for them to be seen by a\ntherapist and get some counseling around stress and anxiety and the things that they were dealing\nwith. The other category, things that we found, cellphone policies were inconsistent, and there's\nissues on the elementary school playground, and food came up. Food options came up a lot,\nespecially with the high school kids. Over at Alameda High, there's access to Park Street, so there's\nmore things for them to eat because who wants to eat school food. But over at Encinal it's a bit of a\nhike to actually get to something that they find more palatable. Some things that I pulled out of the\nsurvey that I wanted to go over really quickly. There's a few items, bullying, drugs and alcohol, and\ndepression, and then there's a couple on the other slide.\nJodi McCarthy: The thing that we found was, Alameda High, and I don't know necessarily why,\nbut it has a higher percentage of students that are struggling with things, with bullying, with drugs\nand alcohol. 86% of the students surveyed felt that a lot or some students were affected by drug or\nalcohol use. 87%, feelings of depression, right? Versus Encinal where it was only 64%. The stress,\nanxiety, and feeling worried, 92% of the students at Alameda High felt that kids were going through\na lot of anxiety, and a lot of stress. Which really speaks to me.\nJodi McCarthy: The threats or feeling unsafe at Alameda High, there was 37% of the students felt\nthat a lot or some of them were affected by feeling unsafe and at Encinal it was only 29%. But it's\nreally that 92% at Alameda High that's kind of got a whole lot of red flags ringing for me. Through\nthe California Healthy Kids survey, some of the biggest areas of concern that we looked at were\ncigarette use and vaping devices. 5% of seventh graders were using cigarettes or vaping devices.\nSeventh grade, like in middle school, so it's starting at middle school, and it just, is increasing up to\nwhere it was at least half of the students at the continuation school, were vaping or smoking.\nChronic sadness and hopelessness was high across the grade levels.\nJodi McCarthy: It ranged from 21% to 35%, 14% of the ninth graders, and 21% of the students at\nthe continuation High School had seriously considered attempting suicide. That's seriously\nconsidered, not just kind of thought about it but seriously considered it, to even attempting. Cyber\nbullying was reported the highest in middle school at 12%, and 11th grade at 14%. And kids need to\n03/13/19\nPage 14 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 15, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\neat\ntheir breakfast, whether or not they have You know, my kids have it, it's in there, that they\ndon't, kids need to eat their breakfast. We provide options for them at school, in the office, mostly,\nthere's a bowl of fresh fruit or in most school offices there's access to food, kids have the access to\nfood, they just need to eat it.\nJodi McCarthy: The online survey. Depression, feeling sad, teasing and problems at home were\nthe areas for all three groups, the students, the parents and the staff that really popped up when it\ncame to why kids were feeling stressed. There's underlying, there's already underlying mental health\nissues with depression or sadness. There's teasing and there's problems at home. In the top five\nrelationship issues, staff reported that there's bullying and families reported that their kids are\nfeeling lonely or left out. The focus groups were so fun.\nJodi McCarthy: The biggest unmet needs that the kids told us about in these groups was there's a\nlot of stress that they're dealing with, there's a lot of conflicts trying to balance everything. They've\ngot a full academic load at school plus they play sports plus they're in clubs and then there's their\nsocial needs and playing Fortnite and all the other stuff that goes along with being a kid, it's really\nhard for them to kind of find balance and they need strategies and they need skills. They reported a\nlot of like, I need to learn how to manage it and I don't know how, and they need somebody to show\nthem how to do it.\nJodi McCarthy: And dealing with social situations with their friends. High school students\nreported a huge problem with cannabis. They reported that vaping and marijuana was quite\ncommon and not unheard of, and it's even bigger than the alcohol use in the school. Adderall is big\nespecially during finals. They reported a lot of depression, anxiety, and stress, too much homework,\nstruggling with their grades, and teachers not understanding really what's going on with them at\nhome. Pulling out the two different sub-groups the African-American and the high achieving\nstudents, the African-American students reported stress balancing life with sports and grades and\nhomework and family life.\nJodi McCarthy: They really felt that their teachers and the adults on campus don't know what's\ngoing on with them. There's not a lot of connection that they feel with the adults on campus. They\nreally said that they need more support and they felt like there wasn't a community and the teachers\ndidn't really care if they passed or failed. That they were just another body in a class. So we need to\ndo a better job at connecting with those students. And our high achieving students said that sleep\nwas a huge issue. Stress, depression, anxiety and again, the balancing of their lives, the balancing of\nschool and sports and the different clubs and stuff that they belong to. They really felt pressured to\ndevelop relationships with adults on campus. They felt like, that was something that they really\nneeded to do. And parent pressure, they reported a lot of pressure and stress from their parents and\ntheir expectations of them, and living up to those expectations.\nJodi McCarthy: That was a lot.So out of all of that we dug really deep to kind of get at the needs\nof our students, we came up with the next steps. We have already formed a steering committee to\nkind of help drive this work now that we have it. We have a committee. We met already, in\nNovember, there's three other dates that we're going to meet through the school year to help gather\nthe work and drive it, developing a communication plan so that we can bring out our findings to the\n03/13/19\nPage 15 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 16, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\ncommunity, and kind of solicit help with it. Developing a financial sustainability plan, because\nadditional staff, it costs Money. Things that kind of fell into the no cost solutions were developing a\nclear process and site expectations for the referrals and for crisis intervention, kind of revising our\nroles and responsibilities on who we have providing mental health services, hopefully, freeing up\nmore of our experts, freeing up more of our school psychologists who aren't just doing assessments\nfor kids that are coming up for special education, like doing a better job with our tier one and our\ntier two. So that is, you know where I'm going with that.\nJodi McCarthy: So utilizing them better and strengthening and building relationships with outside\npartners which is really hard to do, it's really hard to do, especially in a community that doesn't have\na lot of Medi-Cal population. Stuff that we already have planned, we're presenting all of this at the\nschool sites, we're doing some community presentations, we have monthly meetings with Alameda\nFamily Services, and they're going through their own revamping and we've already presented to the\nboard and we're going to do more presentations on what we're doing in order to kind of move this\nprocess along. That's it.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much, I'm sure we have some questions.\nJodi McCarthy: A million I'm sure. Yeah, it's a lot.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Brillinger, do you have anything that you want to\nArnold Brillinger: I have. If you would have been working back in the '60s or in the '90s, with the\nsame kind of assessment to find out what these different feelings were, how do your findings differ\nfrom somebody that would have been in the '60s, going to high school or in the 90s?\nJodi McCarthy: So I was going to high school in the 90s. Okay, early 90s, like '91, '92, but it was\nstill the 90s, and I have a 13 and a 15 year old son and I was a counselor in the high school, I was at\nAlameda High, I was at Island high for a while. And the main difference I think for kids these days,\nversus kids back in the '80s or the '90s, is their access to each other and their access to information.\nAnd how fast this world moves.\nJodi McCarthy: You know what I mean? When Jewell came on to the scene - it's like an E-cig type\nof thing. When the vaping came on to the scene, everybody knew about it, right away because it\nwas right there. If it was back in my day we would have to actually dial a phone to tell each other\nabout it and then listen to the modem as it kind of screeched along and maybe someone would get a\npage. Their access, I think, their access, their access to information, their access to ways to use,\ntheir access to peers, and the social pressures. I think that's the biggest difference between then and\nnow.\nArnold Brillinger: Alright. And I realize that the cyber bullying and so forth has a lot to do with it.\nJodi McCarthy: Some.\nArnold Brillinger: And we didn't have it way back then. We had to do it in your face.\n03/13/19\nPage 16 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 17, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nJodi McCarthy: Right.\nArnold Brillinger: But I was thinking, a lot of these things but no one asked us back in the 60s. I\ndon't know, did they ask you in the 90s?\nJodi McCarthy: Ask me what?\nArnold Brillinger: About these different behaviors.\nJodi McCarthy: I don't recall ever getting asked about it. I don't know if I was ever asked about it\nin high school, or if a report like this ever came out in the 90s. But then, I was a teenager and it was\nall about me, so I don't know what, right? What was really going on. I don't know. I don't remember\nparticipating in anything like the depth that we did with this survey last year.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes. I mean, I would like to commend you for doing this.\nJodi McCarthy: Thank you.\nArnold Brillinger: But I've, I was going to high school and middle school in the 60s. And a lot of\nthese things I thought, \"Hey, we had those things too\". We didn't have the cyber things of course,\nbut the whole thing about \"You don't understand me\". And so forth. And I bet everybody here\nremembers that when they were growing up, no matter what, if they were 60s, it's good to get this\nout in the open. And we need to have the cooperation of the parents and the staff, the teachers, the\nadministration, and all through the educational process. So I commend you for doing this. And I\nalso wanted to know. Well, obviously there are other school districts that are doing something like\nthis. How do your students seem to compare to them or is it pretty much the same way? As\npercentages and stuff like that?\nJodi McCarthy: So when we were starting this process, we looked at New Haven Unified and we\nlooked at Berkeley Unified, they both did. We looked to them, because I don't want to reinvent the\nwheel, you want to see what people have done and what worked and you want to use what they\nused. And our needs assessment showed. Our needs assessment showed a higher increase in the\nanxiety and the depression and the suicide ideation. I spoke to Karen, oh God Karen Orlashack. She\nruns the Intensive Outpatient Program at Kaiser. I spoke to her at the beginning of the year about a\ncouple of our students, who were 5150'd and they go into either the partial hospitalization program\nor they go into the Intensive Outpatient Program. And she asked me, she's like, \"What is going on in\nAlameda?\" And I'm like, \"What are you talking about?\" She said, \"Well, anywhere from 30 to 50%\nof the kids in the IOP or the PHP programs are from Alameda\". That's huge, because they serve\nBerkley, Emeryville, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward and Oakland. And for a program to have\n30 to 50% of the participants in it from Alameda, is alarming.\nJodi McCarthy: So alarming that I met with Kaiser this morning to find out how we can partner\nwith them more. But of the comparable needs assessments that I've looked at, it's our depression,\nour anxiety, our stress, and our suicide ideation, as is more. And our drug use is a little bit more\n03/13/19\nPage 17 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 18, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nbecause kids use that to cope with this, and it's just a snowball.\nArnold Brillinger: What kind of pressures would be different here in Alameda that's raising those\npercentages?\nJodi McCarthy: In the shows, you find more of those pressures on the east end. It's the higher\nsocioeconomic, the higher demand on the kids, the higher stress that you're going to go to Harvard\nor Yale or Stanford, and to do that, you need to play football, basketball, baseball, run track, do\ncross-country, be in this club, be in that club, do your community service. So there's a lot of\npressure that's being put on our kids, especially at our higher-performing, higher-achieving students,\nso much so that we have a homework committee at Alameda Unified looking at reducing homework\nfor our kids across the district, like limiting what AP classes you can take. Our kids are taking five\ndifferent advanced placement courses plus taking a course at the community college. The level of\nstress that they're under is ridiculous.\nArnold Brillinger: Now Alameda High takes in all of the students from Harbor Bay Island?\nJodi McCarthy: Bay Farm, yes.\nArnold Brillinger: Oh, Bay Farm? Okay.\nJodi McCarthy: Union [Street]? Thank you. I should know. Yeah, that's the line.\nArnold Brillinger: Alright, thank you very much.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: God, I feel so grim.\nJodi McCarthy: Sorry, it's this heavy. I know, I'm sorry.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Roloff?\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, so first of all, thank you both so much for coming. I'm the, what am I, the\nliaison to the school board from our commission. And so as our commission decided at our retreat\nlast January, and I think we'll be having another retreat to decide on priorities we probably decided\nto prioritize and focus on mental health needs, not that we're eliminating anything else, but to put a\nfocus on there. So in seeing what the school board was up to, this was the first report that I caught a\nwind of and what struck me was that - and correct me where I'm wrong - but it's my understanding\nthat they said, \"Well we don't really have any money to focus on the things that would take money,\nso let's focus on the things that we can do that are no cost.\" And I think that's fantastic that we're\ndoing that. So as a commission, what we're chartered with is to try and make referrals to council\nand encourage council.\nJennifer Roloff: And this is where I was saying earlier, talking to both of you, is there anything that\nyou think that we can do to advocate to the city for budget or resources to help where the school\ndistrict is saying no to you, or maybe you're already looking at other sources of funding? It's a lot, I\n03/13/19\nPage 18 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 19, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nknow, and you don't have to answer it all now. You can get back to us too.\nJodi McCarthy: Anything you can do to advocate for services, I'm not going to say no to. And\nthat's kind of what we're doing now is we're presenting these needs. It's like, \"Hey community..\n11\nBecause, we can't take care of our children by ourselves, you know what I mean? The school\ndistrict can't do it all. We need the community. We need the parents, we need the non-profits, we\nneed the village.\nVictoria Forester: And right now what we're seeing is that when it comes to mental health needs,\nthe only game in town is special education. So in order to get help if we have mental health issues\nwhich many of our students do, you have to get referred for an IEP, individualized education plan,\nthen the cost of special education skyrockets and it just becomes this wall. In other districts that\nhave lower socio-economics and higher Medi-Cal needs, you can harness that Medi-Cal dollar to\nget everything that they need. Alameda's, it's trickier. It's trickier because we have less than 30% of\nour students on Medi-Cal and in neighboring districts, folks in Oakland and Berkeley. San\nLeandro's has 73% of their students qualify for Medi-Cal. Heck, I had all sorts of services in San.\nLeandro.\nVictoria Forester: It's extremely difficult. So any way that we can partner with community\norganizations to bring mental health services or just some emotional work to our students, we're\nbettering the situation. That's a great question. And we will. You will see both of us link arms with\nanyone that wants to help us bring this work to our kids. What you saw tonight is incredibly\nalarming. And again, 34 years in public education, I'm a little older than Jodi, those statistics that\nare just about Alameda Unified are extremely alarming.\nJennifer Roloff: Right, okay. Just a thought, maybe we put that on our agenda for our upcoming\nretreat. We'll have another one early in 2019 and see what we can come up with.\nJodi McCarthy: The city of Alameda also did a needs assessment last year, and one of their\nfindings was there was a need for mental health services. So it's not just a finding for the school\ndistrict, but I don't know, I think there's more awareness.\nJennifer Roloff: Find a way to bridge those two. Okay, thank you. I think that was my big broad\nquestion. So I know that was a lot, I'll stop there. Thanks so much for coming in.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Deutsch.\nSusan Deutsch: Well thank you very much. These presentations were excellent. I worked in the\nBerkeley Unified School District in Special Ed. In Berkeley, they have Berkeley Mental Health. We\nreferred so many students there, but are those just Medi-Cal students that get access? And how does\nBerkeley Mental Health get their funding, because that's not county, that's city?\nJodi McCarthy: Right. And right now for our mental health work in special education, we have\npartnered with the county most of all. We're also using East Bay Association for Children, EBAC,\nfor our mental health work. But any way you slice it, the billing is much more expensive for\n03/13/19\nPage 19 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 20, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nstudents who don't have Medi-Cal, right?\nJodi McCarthy: And so you'll see the long lines or the waitlists for our students, they're for\nstudents who don't have Medi-Cal And what our findings showed in this needs assessment is that\nour students without Medi-Cal are actually more stressed out, having more suicidal ideation. And so\nwe're chugging along, and again, over qualifying kids for special education services because it's the\nonly game in town, simply because we can't afford to afford not to.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Morrison.\nLeslie Morrison: Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation. And the statistics are really\nalarming, and I don't know that there's an easy fix. One of the questions I had was really about the\navailability of mental health services in the city, and I think you've already addressed that. I'm new\nto the commission, so I'm not really certain about the history, but I think that there is a paucity of\nmental health providers across the country, and particularly mental health providers for children.\nAnd my experience is there aren't a lot of mental health providers in the city of Alameda. Or people\nwho are private pay. And so, I like you reaching out to Kaiser. I wonder about reaching out to some\nof the other providers. I don't think it's an easy solution. And I'm just sort of parroting what you've\nalready said, but I think to put it all on the school district doesn't really seem fair, but it's a big\nproblem, I don't know where to start.\nJodi McCarthy: Well in the Kaiser and the health insurance it took me a year and a half to get the\nright person, I guess, because they're a huge are organization, and I'm a little person, looking for\nthat right person at the right time to get in front of.\nLeslie Morrison: But there aren't a lot of child psychiatrists in the country. There aren't a lot of\nchild therapists in the country. So it's not just an Alameda problem, it's kind of a national problem. I\nalso don't know that private providers are really wanting to volunteer to provide mental health\nservices. You talk about access point, certainly, special education is an access point, but you talk\nabout people getting 5150'd because that's the way they can get into the mental health service\ncommunity which, again, you don't want to be 5150-ing people to get them mental health services,\nbut sometimes that's the only point of access because the wait list for therapy sessions is\ncomparably six to eight weeks out anyway.\nVictoria Forester: We have actually instructed parents on how to go about that situation for kids\nthat were in that desperate need. And I think that's among the hardest work I've ever done is to talk\nto a mom about how to call the police, and what to say to get your kid into a hospital. You can't\nunlearn that work. It's very, very difficult. And yet, sometimes that's what we have to do to get some\nof the help for mental health, particularly behavioral issues particularly at home. I can't always\neffect at home as educators during the day. So instructing parents on how to go about that is heart-\nwrenching.\nLeslie Morrison: The only other thought that I have is about developing a peer network in your\nschools, and I don't know if that would be a low cost or a no cost option, but certainly at schools of\nhigher education that are really developing mental health services programs, they are really looking\n03/13/19\nPage 20 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 21, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nat sort of a peer-to-peer model.\nJodi McCarthy: We have that. The county runs a program called TUPE, Tobacco-Use Prevention\nEducation. They use a peer-to-peer model, so they do a lot of training of peers around tobacco and\nvaping and stuff like that, to go out and do the work. They do that in the middle and high schools.\nSo we have our middle and high schools participating in that. And then also through the school-\nbased health centers, they have something called, YEAH, and I forget right now what that stands\nfor, but it's Youth Education something, but it's the students doing peer-to-peer connections within\nthe high schools. And what we presented, don't forget, it's a deficit model. We're doing a lot of\namazing, wonderful things, but we have huge needs.\nVictoria Forester: Certainly, my experience is that a lot of kids are the identified patients. And so\nthere was a lot that you said about family pressures and stresses at home that the kids are bringing\nto school. And again, that's sort of beyond the scope of what a school can look at, but I think that\nthat plays a part, it might be the one that's showing up, displaying the stress and they're coming to\nthe place where they do that, but it's a larger system that's playing it, it's what loops back to what\nservices were available.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Anto.\nAnto Aghapekian: I'm overwhelmed with all the information that you gave us tonight, and I'm\nbasically humbled. [inaudible].\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Yeah, I want to follow up on that as well. The work that you're doing\nis definitely very difficult with all the things that are coming in different directions and stuff. So we\nreally thank you for the work that you do and for coming to present with us. It's really great. And\nwe have people who listen to this meeting as well. So, it's hopefully getting out to a broad base.\nWith so many issues that you've brought up, where do you start? I'm just listening all these things\nand I'm like, \"Gosh, I wouldn't know where to start.\" Do you start with the suicide prevention? Do\nyou start with the vaping? How do you tackle this?\nJodi McCarthy: It can be really overwhelming. It's a lot. And we're doing a lot as a district. Kirsten\nZazo and myself, she's the Chief of Student Support Services, we are on the board of Alameda\nFamily Services, to kind of strengthen that partnership, we're doing a lot of outreach and, \"Hey, we\nneed help\", type things. We're also doing a lot of things at the district. We're doing the multi-tier\nsystems of support, which is providing different supports, both academics, socio-emotional at all of\nour school sites. Girls Inc is an amazing partner. They are putting groups, girls groups in every\nsingle elementary school, trying to empower these young women in our political climate that we\nhave right now that is not. Anyway, so they're empowering girls, and teaching girls how to talk to\neach other, and how to be friends and not be so catty, and just strengthening those skills at the\nelementary level, so that when they get to the high school and middle school level, they'll have a\nsolid base.\nJodi McCarthy: It is doing things like bringing in restorative practices. There's about 10 of us or so\nat the district office that are trained, trainers for restorative practices. So teaching We have this\n03/13/19\nPage 21 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 22, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nthree-year rollout of bringing restorative practices into school to bring down So there's a lot of\nawesome stuff that we're doing, and it's not like you can pick vaping.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, does anyone have any other questions or comments?\nArnold Brillinger: I just wanted to thank you also, because I've spent a lot of time in elementary\neducation, and I've been on the south side of Chicago and East Oakland. These were all not public\nschools though. Okay. And also in San Francisco. When they took their achievement tests and stuff\nlike that, the whole school was up in the top 90s, that kind of stuff. And so I've been a part of both\nof those different groups, but was really surprised to see the stats that you brought up here.\nVictoria Forester: Alright, we're glad to come back in and talk about progress.\nS?: Thanks so much.\n4-C\nRetreat Scheduling for 2019 at Mastic Senior Center\nAvailable dates are 1/12, 1/26, 2/9 and 2/16. No retreat in 2019 is also an option.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, so we're going to move into item 4C, which is the retreat\nscheduling. It's open to the public. You're welcome. So Laurie, were you going to provide the dates\nor do you want me to? Sorry, I don't have them.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So I believe the first thing we need to vote on is whether or not we\nwould like a retreat this year. Because of the way that we had had the schedule in the past, we\nneeded to make up a meeting because of how we had it every other month with the August, City not\nhaving any meetings that month. So this year we can decide whether or not we want to have the\nmeeting, otherwise we have our six regular schedule meetings. I would like to propose that we do\nhave a retreat, an extended time that we all get to talk and plan for the year. So I think we should\npropose a vote on whether or not you guys also agree with having a retreat for next year. Can I do\nall in favor or.\nJennifer Roloff: So I'm just looking, January 9th is our next meeting. Are you saying we add an\nextra date or maybe take January 9th and change that, use our retreat in lieu of a meeting, or add an\nextra meeting?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Laurie, do you know?\nLaurie Kozisek: Madam Chair, I believe the reason that we started having the retreats was because\nwe only had five meetings per year and we needed a minimum of six, because we couldn't meet in\nAugust because the Council chamber was dark. So we switched to odd months, so now we get our\nsix meetings in. So if you want to do the retreat, it's just because you want to do a retreat. It could\nbe an extra meeting, or you could choose to do the retreat, and then cancel one of the regular\nmeetings. It's up to you if you want to cancel the November one or something.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, so maybe we vote on whether or not we would like a retreat.\n03/13/19\nPage 22 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 23, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nThese are usually on a Saturday. I think it was maybe three hours, three or four hours last year.\nMaybe we vote on whether we want to have a retreat, and then we can decide on whether or not we\nwould like to cancel our January meeting. That sound good? Okay. So everyone in favor of having a\nretreat.\nArnold Brillinger: I move that we have a retreat next year.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. Do we have a second?\nJennifer Roloff: I second it.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor?\nAll except Leslie Morrison: Aye.\nLeslie Morrison: I abstain, just because I've never been in the council, I don't really have an\nopinion either way for the vote. I would abstain.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: No problem. Okay, anyone in favor of canceling the January 9th\nmeeting in order to have the retreat?\nJennifer Roloff: OK, I'll move, or re-schedule the January meeting into a retreat. So that it's a\nretreat, okay. Is that weekend? Yeah, I would make that. Yeah, I move to do that.\nSusan Deutsch: I second\nAnto Aghapekian: I second [inaudible comments]\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So we have a few options, sorry, for the retreat. It could be the 12th,\nthe 26th, or February 9th, or February 16th. So we can agree on a date, hopefully, that most people\nare able to attend. We want to try to pick a date first.\nAll: [short discussion on dates]\nArnold Brillinger: Did we have someone second her motion?\nSusan Deutsch: Yes, I did.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: This is for the cancellation of the Rescheduling, sorry. Thank you.\nRescheduling of the meeting from January which is the 9th to one of the retreat weeks. But we just\nwanted to check and see if there was a weekend that worked with everyone. So if we want to have a\nmotion, if someone would like to do a motion to reschedule, and then\nAll: [More discussion of dates]\n03/13/19\nPage 23 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 24, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So I would like to do a motion to move the January 9th meeting to\nFebruary 9th, and it would be a retreat. And we would work out the timing, not sure what it will be,\nbut I think it was like 10:00 to 2:00 last year. So do we have a second?\nSusan Deutch: I second.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor?\nArnold Brillinger: No, wait a minute. Let's have some discussion.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Go ahead.\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, I don't think that we necessarily need to get less meetings because this\ngroup, when I look at the people here, there are a lot of things that can be discussed and voted on,\nand worked on in six meetings plus a retreat, and I would just not like to shorten it down again. So\nI'm saying we should still keep the January meeting and schedule a retreat somewhere.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. And we also, I believe, have some speakers for our January 9th\nmeeting. Correct, Laurie? So that's another thing that we want to take into consideration as well.\nAnto Aghapekian: I move that we have the January meeting, and also in addition, we have the\nretreat, so that we don't compromise the guests who will come on the 9th, and that's what I propose.\nJennifer Roloff: I'll second that. That's okay.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: We want to vote on that?\nLeslie Morrison: So, technically, those are conflicting amendments; one is to reschedule the\nJanuary, 9th meeting. So I think you have to vote on whether you're going to reschedule the January\n9th meeting, and if that motion doesn't pass, then you could have a second motion to have an\nadditional retreat meeting, but I don't know how you amend the first. I don't think it's a friendly\namendment. I think you have to vote down the motion on the first.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So we'll vote.\nLeslie Morrison: Yeah, take a vote on whether we're going to move the January meeting and\neveryone who thinks that we should have an extra meeting would then vote no to rescheduling the\nJanuary meeting, and then we would have an additional I think that that would be the proper way\nto do that.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So we'll go back to the January 9th meeting, a motion to keep it\nas it is and not reschedule it.\nLeslie Morrison: The motion is to reschedule. So all those in favor of rescheduling the January 9th\nmeeting to a February retreat, that's the motion that's on. You could also withdraw that motion if the\n03/13/19\nPage 24 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 25, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nperson, people who made it want to withdraw it given the comments. It could be withdrawn also. Or\nwe can vote on the motion, either way. Who made the motion? Do they want to withdraw it?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Who made the motion, Laurie?\nLaurie Kozisek: The motion was made by Jennifer, and then it was remade by Jenn, and was\nseconded by Susan.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Do we want to withdraw that?\nJennifer Roloff: So we would like to withdraw the motion.\nSusan Duetsch: Okay. Yes, we'll withdraw the motion.\nJennifer Roloff: Yes. So now you can have a new motion.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, I'll make the motion that we have our six scheduled meetings plus a\nretreat, because the retreat is very important for us to get to know each other, and we need to build\nrelationships. That's what those two ladies said that they need to build relationships in Alameda\nbetween parents, teachers and committee members. And so, okay, so that's my motion is that we\nkeep the six plus a retreat date.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. Do we have a second?\nAnto Aghapekian: Second.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: All in favor?\nAll except Leslie Morrison: Aye.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Any opposed?\nLeslie Morrison: And I again am going to abstain being a new member. But I'm happy to attend in\nFebruary.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. I believe we're done with item 4C. So we'll move on to Old\nBusiness, Commission and Board Liaison Reports. Oh, go ahead, Laurie.\nLaurie Kozisek: Could I get a clarification that Arnold made a motion that we keep the scheduled\nmeeting and add a retreat?\nArnold Brillinger: Correct.\nLaurie Kozisek: I think you need to make another motion saying the retreat will be on such and\nsuch day from 10:00 to 12:00 or 10:00 to 2:00.\n03/13/19\nPage 25 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 26, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: 10:00 to 2:00. Okay. So I would like to make an additional motion\nthat we have the retreat on February 9th, from 10:00 to 2:00 PM. Can I have a Second?\nSusan Deutsch: I second.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Any abstain or nay? No? Okay. Okay, I believe we're all set now.\n5. OLD BUSINESS\n5-A\nCommission and Board Liaison Reports (All commissioners)\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Old Business Commission and Board Liaison Reports. Commissioner\nBrillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: Yes, I've been going to various commissions on disability in Berkeley and also\nin Oakland. The ones in Oakland seem to have lot of meat to them, because they're doing all kinds\nof work. Not only worried about the paratransit in the East Bay, but they're also dealing with\ndifferent matters of transportation and how things are being constructed in Oakland. And I also went\nto the different AC Transit meeting, and they're continuing on with the working on International\nBoulevard to make it where the buses have their own lanes and things. So it's going to be interesting\nto see that. Our transportation meeting here in Alameda is next week, so I'll tell us about it in\nJanuary. So those are my things.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Great, thank you. Commissioner Roloff?\nJennifer Roloff: The only thing I wanted to follow up on is And I think, I don't know\nif\nwe\nhave\na\ncommission, but is it Jennifer, Jen and Anto, you were working on ADA for businesses, and we had\nsuggested that the Facade grant that the city matches be extended into businesses doing ADA, and\nessentially, Laurie came back with a \"No\". And I'm wondering if there's a way we can push on that,\nif we could talk to someone in the city offices as to why or.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: That would be great. Do we know who is in charge of issuing the\ngrant, or different grants for the city?\nJennifer Roloff: Like the Facade grant. Do you remember the Facade grant, and that you came\nback and you said you checked into it and they said \"No\"? And I'm thinking maybe we can push a\nlittle bit.\nLaurie Kozisek: I can't remember at the moment. I will get back to you on that. Who should I\nreport that to?\n03/13/19\nPage 26 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 27, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: You can report it to me.And then I'll spread the word.\nJennifer Roloff: Okay, thank you. That's all I have for today.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Thank you so much. Commissioner Deutsch.\nSusan Deutsch: So I went to the park and rec mission meeting, and I presented about inclusive\nplaygrounds. I thought they were very receptive. I heard that they liked my presentation, just from\nsomebody, randomly, who heard about it. So I think it really went well. They're, right now, in the\nprocess of re-doing Littlejohn Park, and that park is going to have some inclusive aspects to it, but\nit's not going to be totally inclusive; it's a small park. And I think they're going to be talking more as\nthey re-do other parks and build other parks. They're going to be talking more about how they can\nmake the playgrounds more inclusive from the conversations. So I could send out a copy of what\ntheir plans are, for Littlejohn Park, but you really can't tell from the picture, really. But if everyone\nwants that, I can send it to Laurie and she can send it out or however.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Are their plans pretty solidified at this point?\nSusan Deutsch: For Littlejohn, yeah, yeah, that's S solidified, so we can't make changes for that.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So maybe future parks we can try to get in early.\nSusan Duetsch: Yeah, they're really open to it for future\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Oh, that's awesome, great.\nAnto Aghapekian: I was speaking with one of the commissioners about your presentations, and he\nsaid that he was very impressed as well as the other members of the commission, and they learned a\nlot from your presentation, not only they would invest, but they're going to use some of the items\nwith the presentation in their future plans.\nSusan Deutsch: Thank you. I had that impression from them.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So Commissioner Morrison, just so you're aware that each year during\nour retreat, we have specific organizations or Commissions within the city that we all attend. And so\nduring our retreat, we'll re-categorize who would like to be a representative for our commission and\nattend meetings or events, etcetera, so that the city knows that we're available as a resource and that\nwe're able to get information from them and provide information to them, so it works out well.\nLeslie Morrison: Great. Looking forward to participating.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Commissioner Anto.\nAnto Aghapekian: I don't have much. The city was very quiet, I guess it was maybe because after\n03/13/19\nPage 27 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 28, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nthe elections. But there is two items that the planning department is working on, and you've\nprobably heard them that's one on Central that a member of the planning department came and did a\npresentation for us last year, and they have made some changes, some modifications to the original\nplan. And then the other one is on Clement Street. The plans are pretty well-developed. And I would\nlike to, if the mission's agreeable, to invite one of the planning department officials to come and\nmake presentation to us and both develop next meeting or the week, whenever they can come.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So, on my part, I went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting to\ntalk about the ADA Initiative that I've done, been working on for getting businesses to be doing\nsmall steps to be more accessible under the ADA, and providing certificate, showing that they've\nmade progress. So I left a number of flyers there, and we have a commission email address so that\npeople can email and ask questions and send in photos of their before and after. And I also got in\ncontact with three city staff members that I met and have asked them to pass along our flyer and our\ninformation as well. I'm still going to try to work on spreading the word a little bit more the best I\ncan, so any ideas on how to do that, the better. And then I believe the I'm sorry, I don't know the\nexact name. They came to talk to us about the help for the elderly and some of the homeless.\nThey're going to be talking in front of the city council next meeting, I believe.\nLaurie Kozisek: If you're speaking of the Alameda Collaborative, which is working on the McKay\nWellness Center, yes, they spoke here, and then they spoke at the planning board, and then I think\nthey're speaking at the council.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: And this is to remove the government name on the parcel right now.\nLaurie Kozisek: Yes, it's to remove the government overlay, which is a required step before they\ncan sell the property. They already have it leased and they're already going ahead with their plans.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: If anyone's interested at the next council meeting. Does anyone have\nany other items?\nArnold Brillinger: Jen, I had a question for your group. Are there certificates that you're handing\nout already?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: I have not handed one out yet, but I do have a copy of it. It'll\nprobably. It'll be half-sized, but it'll look like this.\nArnold Brillinger: Okay, because there's I'm kind of slow going down Park Street, and so it gives\nme time to read all of the notices in the different windows. And somebody had a thing up there, it\nwas a certificate that they were passed by a CASp person, but it didn't have any signatures. Because\nI was wondering who did this, and I didn't know where they got the certificate from.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Laurie, I think you would be able to answer that question since you're\nCASp certified.\nLaurie Kozisek: I would.\n03/13/19\nPage 28 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 29, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nArnold Brillinger: Now see, I'm going to have to go back and find out because I don't remember\nwhere it was that I saw it.\nLaurie Kozisek: Okay, do take a look at it again. There should be a number on it or something, so\nthat you can see who the issuing person was, and their CASp number.\nArnold Brillinger: I don't think it was signed, or that it had anything on there. Well, let me find\nout. I'll give you a call and let you check it out. Because I thought it was kind of interesting because\nI\nthought, \"Oh, the group is working on this and here's somebody's order, or whatever. \" But I don't\nthink it looked like that.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. No, so that's something that you can pay for to have a certified\naccessibility inspector come in and look into your facility. Separate, more intensive than this\nprogram. This is more of a free encouragement. That's more of a compliance-based.\n6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. We'll move on to number six, staff communications.\nLaurie Kozisek: Thank you, Madam Chairman. The only thing I have to present is that I got an\nemail today from someone who was ejected out of a restaurant because she had a service animal,\nwhich rather surprised her. So you might want to consider looking into service animals and\neducating people on what's a service animal as opposed to an emotional support animal or therapy\nanimal or whatever, and add that to your education of businesses.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. Yeah, that's a huge item. Thank you for bringing that up, and I\nthink that's something that we should definitely look into. You see it on the news a lot recently, and\nit's definitely illegal to eject someone who has a service animal. So it's sad to hear that that's\nhappening in Alameda if that was the case.\n7. ANNOUNCEMENTS\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Item seven, any announcements? Commissioner Brillinger?\nArnold Brillinger: The other day I was going down Park Street again, and I heard someone yelling.\n\"Hey you, stop, stop,\" and I thought, \"Well, there's a lot of 'hey yours out here, so I don't I'm not\ngoing to turn around.\" And so then, \"You in a wheelchair, stop!\" So then I did a U and I looked, and\nit was another lady in a power chair and she says, \"You're on that commission for the city.\" I said,\n\"Well, yes.\" And she says, \"Well I've got a problem.\" And her problem was that her power chair had\nstopped on her when she was at Mastick, and I don't know how she ever got home, but it turned out\nthat no one was really able to help her.\nArnold Brillinger: And there's nothing. The county used to have a service where if you had some\nkind of a problem with your wheelchair, you could call them and see if you can get some help. Now\n03/13/19\nPage 29 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 30, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nI've had problems with mine, but I've luckily been able to get help and get back home because of\nAC Transit or somebody else who really went out on a limb and took care of it for me. So what I\nwould like to do just in this announcement thing, could we put it on the next agenda? And it'd only\nbe like five minutes or something like that of trying to work up something in the county again and\nOkay.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So we actually do have it as part of our agenda. It reached Laurie as\nwell that people are having trouble getting home. So, perfect prelude into our next meeting. This is\na huge issue that was cancelled, this program that Arnold is speaking of where the fire department\nwill not come and pick you up and take you home. There's not a current system. And I think this is\nsomething that we really need to look into and try to help address so that people are not stranded\nwhen their wheelchair or other mobility device fails them when they're out on the streets.\nAnto Aghapekian: Two or three meetings ago, we had a presentation about emergency help for\npeople, if somebody faints on the street, there is an emergency department in the city that goes and\npicks you up. Wasn't there a lady that gave a representation like that to us, about three meetings ago,\ntwo meetings ago?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: I know we've spoken about a number of transportation items whether\nit be the taxi or the Paratransit or the shuttle. When we're talking about the bikes, and maybe they\nwould prevent you from going down a curb ramp or something. So it's definitely come up, but I\ndon't think we've had a concrete solution. Because they could submit something to the city, but that\nrequest is not something that's immediate. The see click fix is something that you guys work on\nover a period of time. It's not like an emergency service. If anyone has any other comments on that.\nSusan Deutsch: Well, we did have a presentation just about emergencies in general, like if there's\nan earthquake or some kind of major emergency in the city, somebody presented that there's a plan\nfor that, but it didn't include somebody getting stuck with their wheelchair, just going out on\nSo\nyeah, we have to\nAnto Aghapekian: I brought that up, that issue. I did bring it up; what happens if a person in a\nwheelchair is stuck because of the curb, the sidewalk or whatever, and they said that they did not\nhave any services for people who are in wheelchairs or they're handicapped. And I brought it up\nespecially because they were assisting other people, but for some reason, not people in wheelchairs.\nThat's why I brought it up.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: So maybe we can brainstorm and look into things between now and\nour next meeting since it is going to be a topic. And maybe, since you're connected with the other\ndisability commissions, see if they have anything.\nArnold Brillinger: I was going to suggest that, let's say we can't do it this meeting because it's not\non the agenda, but for this group to say \"Yes, let's look into that,\" and get people from the other\ngroups to get together and approach the county and say, \"This is what we can do,\" or, \"how is this\nfunded,\" or find out all the things about it. So it sounds to me like the same lady probably called\nyou or whatever, and she's probably watching right now too, so.\n03/13/19\nPage 30 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 31, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: And then she's the one who reported it, but I'm sure that it happens to\npeople a lot more often than we know of. So I definitely want to take it seriously and look into it.\nJennifer Roloff: Do we know, so if you actually call the fire department, they would say, \"Sorry,\nno\"?\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: That's what an email correspondence that Laurie had said, yeah. It's\nnot part of their.\nArnold Brillinger: They may show up though. I've had occasion where I was dropped off, and\ninstead of turning right on the sidewalk, I went over on the grassy area, and it was right after a big\nrain, and if I would have kept on going, I would have gotten back to the sidewalk, but stupid me, I\nstopped for a moment, and then tried to get going again, and just dug a big old pit in the people's\nlawn. And in that case, I did call the fire department, they sent out some burly guys and they alley-\nooped me back to the sidewalk. So, there are certain situations where they will, but in this one, I\ndon't remember, it was some kind of a mechanical problem, I think.\nLaurie Kozisek: Madam Chairman, I believe in your case, Commissioner Arnold, it was a lift\nassist. They were getting you back up on your feet, so to speak. And they do that a lot. They do it\nevery day with people. Whereas this person that contacted you and contacted us was in good health,\nbut had a chair that wouldn't move, and so she essentially needed another way to get home. And so\nthe staff got her out to the curb and got an Uber or something like that for her to get her home. So\nthe fire department wouldn't have been able to drive her home.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So, it's understanding the differences of what is under their role,\nand then what is beyond their role that is the gap that we're missing. Does anyone have any further\ncomments or announcements?\nJennifer Roloff: I just wanted to remind everyone, or share that December 15th, between 10:00\nAM and noon, and I believe it's rain or shine, is the dedication opening of Jean Sweeney Park. And\nif we can go there, I think it's great. Amy will be there from Parks and Rec, and I think it's always\ngood we can have a presence. I plan to be there. 10:00 AM to noon, Jean Sweeney Park, on the\n15th. And then, on a happy note, this Saturday, December 1st, from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM at Feel\nGood Chiropractic on Central, Sensory Santa is taking appointments, and I think it's for children\nwith sensory issues. So, there's no spotlights, no crowds, no extra noise, one-on-one quiet\nappointments, and I thought that was fantastic that our community was responding to needs of some\nof the children. So, they're still taking appointments. If anyone watching is interested, or spread the\nword.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: That's awesome.\n8. ADJOURNMENT\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, I'd like to do a motion to adjourn this meeting. Do I have a\n03/13/19\nPage 31 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}
{"body": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities", "date": "2018-11-28", "page": 32, "text": "ITEM 2-A\nCOMMISSION ON DISABILITY\nMEETING MINUTES\nWednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM\nsecond?\nArnold Brillinger: Second.\nActing Chair Jenn Barrett: All in favor?\nAll: Aye.\n03/13/19\nPage 32 of 32", "path": "CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf"}