KPBSD Pupil Services

Congratulations on your retirement!  Thank you for your years and best wishes to you!

 Fran Stetson
 Jill Ramponi
 Laura McIndoe
 John Clare
 Lori Ford
 Vidya Oftedal
 Jill Herbert

To those leaving our district, we wish you the best of luck!

 Heather Corbett
 Tracy Brown
 Deana Kahn
 Jocelyn Shiro
 Kelly Sheffer
 Logan Schulz
 Matt Tucker
 Susan Stempel
 Shilo McManus

Congratulations to Judy Gonsalves, West Homer Speech-Language Pathologist and 2015 BP Teacher of Excellence Finalist!

Resource Teachers Bobbie Spence and Mary Roed from Redoubt Elementary and Cynthia Fudzinski from       Tustumena Elementary have been nominated for the 2015 Inclusive Practices Award. This is an award given by the Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education to recognize outstanding educators who work to ensure students with disabilities have the opportunity for an inclusive education in the general education curriculum. The nominations are based on the following activities that assure a positive learning environment for all:

Involving parents as equal partners in their child’s education

Encouraging student’s self-determination

Emphasizing inclusive practices amongst peers and others

Providing leadership in sharing the values of inclusion

Designing support services that enable access to the regular curriculum

Modifying programs or curricula as needed

WAY TO GO BOBBIE, MARY, AND CYNTHIA!

Congratulations to the following folks for their upcoming presentations at the Alaska State Special Education Conference (ASSEC) in February!

Monica Stockburger & Trina Uvaas: Student-Led IEPs for all Students

Holly Abel: Best-practices in Presenting Evaluation Results: How to Write and Share Reports that Build Relationships

Clayton Holland & Deb Evensen: Evolution toward a Solution

Angie Nelson & Tracy Brown: Teaching Social Skills

Jordana Engebretsen: Digital Learning for Special Education Students

Holly Zwink & Robanne Stading: Best practice, researched based instructional strategies for all grade levels

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!!

The Redoubt Special Education Staff review their philosophy each year as a way refocusing their energy on the students.  Below are the “Redoubt Philosophies”: 

1.  Our focus is the students.  Our job is to be teachers to students.  Students have to come first.
2.  We teach through academic and behavioral lessons and modeling appropriate behavior.  We attempt to model calm behavior and learning.  We follow plans that are put in place.
3.  We have high expectations for our students.  We want them to learn as much as possible.
4.  We value ourselves, our roles, and what we can offer to our students.
5.  We work best when we are consistent have clear expectations and directions and use common language with students.
6.  If these kids were “easy” we wouldn’t be working with them.
7.  School has to be a positive experience for our students.  We need to make what we’re teaching as exciting and positive as possible.
8.  We strive to make connections with our students.  Students in special education have the highest drop out numbers.  The more they are connected, the better their education.
9.  We ask kids to try their best so we need to try our best as well.  We ask kids to do things that are hard or not fun and we have to do hard and not fun things as well.
10.  We are part of a bigger team; not only a special education team, but a school team, a district team and a community team.
11.   We attempt to build independence in our students.  We build independence by:

• Providing expectations of rules and behaviors
• Providing specific assignments with clear completion points
• Allowing students to work independently
• Encourage students to self-monitor and ask for breaks if needed
• Providing a predictable schedule

12. We keep in mind our job is difficult; however, it must remain confidential to protect the rights of our students.