Draft Report No. 08-195 dealing with Special Education Classes, Programs and Services for 2009-2010 was presented to the Special Education Advisory Committee in November. The Report proposes the closing of some classes and opening of others. Subsequently, a SEAC Task Force developed a report outlining its concerns about the proposed changes as information to and consideration by staff. The report can be found below as a "File related to this article".
Details and rationales for these changes can be found as
item #8 at:
http://ocdsb.ca/Documents/Board_Meetings/Meetings/2008/November_2008/SEAC_Nov5_2008/SEAC_nov5_2008.aspThe draft report on proposed changes to Special Education will be presented at the Education Committee meeting of Dec.9--details available at
http://www.ocdsb.ca/au_bot_meeting-dates.aspConsultations to be held at:
Tuesday, December 9, 2008–CANCELLED–
Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Sir Robert Borden High School in library
*NEW* Tuesday, December 16, 2008 7:00 to 8:30Ottawa Public Library-- - North Gloucester in meeting room "B"
2036 Ogilvie Road, Ottawa, ON
Questions may be asked by the public during Public Question period at any SEAC, Education Committee or Board meetings. Dates for these meetings may be found at
http://ocdsb.ca/au_bot_meeting-dates.asp. Information on "How to Ask a Question or Make a Delegation" is available by clicking on the specific committee name at
http://ocdsb.ca/au_bot_committees.asp. A contact name is also provided for finding more information.
In Report No. 06-140: Review of Secondary Gifted Centres in the OCDSB presented to Education Committee on 19 June 2006, one of the recommendations was to reduce the number of Secondary Gifted Centres in order to maintain better viability for the other centres.
PLANNED DATE FOR DECISION: December 2008
Planned date for Implementation: September 2009
Your Input 1) Consultation sessions were held on Tues. Oct.28th at Hillcrest High School and on Thurs. Oct.30th at Woodroffe High School. The original report, a Power Point presentation used at the consultations are now available with the web-site information about the presentation. You can find these at
http://ocdsb.ca/au_bot_sec_gifted.asp (look for the hyperlinks).
2) If you were unable to make the consultations, you may email in your comments to
SGCReview@ocdsb.ca until 26, November 2008.
3) Surveys were sent to parents of children of all ages who are currently identified as "gifted". If you have not received one, call the board office and speak to someone in the Learning Support Services. The number at the board office is 613-596-8211.
Attachments In "read more . ." include a letter from the President of ABC Ottawa, and the text of the original report on Secondary Gifted Centres (p.3 of attachment). Other links to Board documents related to this consultation are embedded in the ABC letter.
Advocacy is the process by which parents or others communicate the needs of their child to school personnel in order to achieve support for their child who is having difficulty with school-related issues. Normally parents are the first to advocate for the needs of their child. However, it is recommended that if you are uncertain how to proceed, are working out difficult issues, or otherwise having difficulty in achieving the required support for your child, you should bring someone to meeting with school personnel to act as an Advocate.
