Sachem SEPTA Open House a Success

Parents in the Sachem community got a close look at what the district has to offer their children at Monday night’s Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA) open house.

“This was exactly what we were hoping for,” said Matthew Jurgens, a special education teacher and principal’s aide at Tecumseh Elementary and co-coordinator of the successful event. “We couldn’t have asked for a better turnout.”

The event, which took place in the Sachem Administrative Annex, was preceded by Sachem SEPTA’s first meeting of the 2011-2012 school year. SEPTA President Lisa Casanova then turned things over to Jurgens and Melissa Brown, an RTI specialist at several elementary schools and the other co-coordinator of the night.  

“We have so many great people here tonight to talk about the different programs and options that are available at Sachem,” began Brown. “Every person up here is dedicated to what they do.”

Attendees were presented with a panel of guidance counselors, reading specialists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, and a variety of other school personnel from around the district. Panelists gave an overview of the types of services that they provide for children with special needs, occasionally fielding questions from an eager audience.

“A lot of what I do involves working on children’s communication skills,” said Speech-Language Pathologist Doreen Schaefer of Sequoya Middle School. Schaefer cited auditory processing, listening comprehension, deductive reasoning, and problem solving as just a few of the vast number of areas that she is able to help students improve upon.

Sagamore Middle School’s Special Education Chairperson Robin Dallanegra spoke on the extensive integrated co-teaching program available for students with special needs.

“The program affords our students the opportunity to interact with their general education peers,” Dallanegra stated. “The line between the general education and special education students used to be a lot clearer, but the marriage that this program has built between the two has really reduced this division.”

Karen Grieco, a social worker at Nokomis Elementary, explained the Second Step program, an initiative dedicated to reducing aggression and promoting prosocial behavior through empathy, impulse control, and anger management training.

Sachem North Transitions Coordinator Ben Franquiz shed light on the case-by-case-basis approach that he and his colleagues employ when working with students transitioning from middle school to high school or from high school to the world of adulthood.

Also presenting at the event were Reading and RTI Specialist Alicia Cohen, Sachem North Special Education Chairperson Ronnie Damm, Sachem East Guidance Counselor Tina Moon, and Waverly Social Worker Debbie Valenzuela.

At the forum’s conclusion, the event opened up into an informal discussion where attendees were given the opportunity to speak with the panelists one-on-one and obtain answers to any lingering questions.

“When you know better, you do a lot better,” said, “and that’s the point of tonight.”