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A national shortage of speech and language pathologists has hit crisis proportions and Connecticut is no exception. The Connecticut State Department of Education’s statistics indicate that there has been a shortage of speech and language pathologists as far back as 1998. A significant impact on why students with special needs are not able to receive speech and language services as part of their Individualized Education Plan is a result of districts not having enough qualified staff. Janet Scialdone, CREC Staffing Solutions Manager, reports that this year it continues to be a problem. “One solution is to provide qualified interim speech and language pathologists who are available for short-term assignments,” Scialdone suggests. Susan Malecky, a speech and language pathology consultant for CREC says, “I have always loved being a speech and language pathologist. This is my dream job! Through the option of a flexible schedule, I am able to continue working and have time for other pursuits.” At a parent and student’s request, an incoming freshman was recommended for a speech and language review to determine if her articulation abilities warranted speech services at the high school level for her to meet expected academic progress, and Malecky supported this request. Upon entering high school, the student and parent reported that the student felt uncomfortable speaking in class because she felt she could not be understood. Numerous observations of the student during academic classes, shop, lunch, one-one-one sessions, and teacher interviews supported this finding: upon occasion she would speak one-on-one with a teacher and was very social with a group of familiar peers at lunch. Overall, speech intelligibility, when she did speak, was good and consistent with previous findings. Her special education teacher reported that the student was struggling in several classes, and PowerSchool revealed that there were many missed assignments and poor test grades. The student reported that she was too busy at home to do the work, was inconsistently compliant with academic support services, and did not seek assistance when needed.It appeared that the family and student were focused on articulation issues and not overall academic performance and personal responsibility as a learner. These issues were discussed with the student, parent, and team members, and both home and school strategies/supports were put into place to decrease the student’s communication anxieties, increase personal responsibility, and improve academic performance. What had initially been presented as an articulation concern was in fact an issue related to school anxiety. Collaboration between home and school has resulted in a positive outcome for the student.Districts and educational organizations like Hartford, New London, Enfield, Granby, Cromwell, and the Connecticut Technical High Schools, who have all struggled with shortages of speech and language pathologists, have found the use of interim speech and language pathologists to be an excellent option until they can find permanent staff members. “Using interim staffing from CREC allowed us to meet our students Individualized Education Plan hours and goals” reflected Jill Dymczyk, a special education consultant for Connecticut Technical High Schools. For more information about how you or your district can benefit from CREC Staffing Solutions, contact Janet Scialdone at jscialdone@crec.org or 860-509-368.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) School security has always been important, but the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown thrust the issue into the spotlight, prompting school districts throughout the country to reexamine their policies and procedures.Educators and law enforcement and government officials have been working together to make sure the safest learning environments are provided for all children, but we can’t be complacent. School districts need to remain vigilant and continue to scrutinize practices, train staff, and strengthen relationships with public safety officials. If a man under the influence of drugs entered a high school hallway near classrooms and the cafeteria, what would you do? Would you know to isolate that person immediately before he entered space occupied by students? Would you know to simultaneously notify security so the police could be called and the person could be escorted off school property?In Connecticut, Public Act 13-3 can be referenced for a comprehensive list of state requirements regarding school security. CREC can also help. CREC’s Director of Public Safety, Chris Nolan, is a retired state police lieutenant and brings real-world law enforcement experience to his job at CREC. He’s a valuable resource—one that you can use. With Nolan’s extensive background in crisis management, CREC is able to offer several security services, including staff training and workshops on security technology. Security audits are available, and CREC can help you develop emergency and crisis management plans. As you consider your school’s emergency preparedness procedures, Nolan shares the following tips:Be sure to regularly talk to your local first responders about school safety plans. The more you communicate; the better off you will be in an emergency. Make sure your school staff members receive an overview of the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System at the beginning of each school year and understand its value. Knowledge is power!Review and update school safety and security plans regularly. Don’t forget to submit them to the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. Assessing security and vulnerability for each school is an important part of being prepared. Connecticut state law requires schools to conduct assessments in these areas every two years. Take these assessments seriously. For more information about CREC’s security services, visit www.crec.org/safety.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) Over the past 20 years, demographics in U.S. public schools have changed. Currently, about 51 percent of children attending public schools are African American, Latino, and Asian or Pacific Islander. Forty-nine percent are Caucasian. Despite these numbers, achievement and opportunity gaps persist between Caucasian students and students of color and affluent and poor children. These gaps remain despite the No Child Left Behind Act requiring that demographic group achievement scores be compared and despite the implementation of numerous other initiatives and programs.Providing equitable and excellent education for all students is a challenge that all educators need to tackle, and school administrators need to think about how their school or district should act from a social justice position? First, a district must consider both the opportunities offered to, and the educational outcomes for, children of color. Additionally, districts must examine school policies, curriculum, and practices from an equitable and multicultural perspective. This is critical to improving education for children from underserved populations. Educators must also be willing to revise and replace policies, curriculum, and practices that do not support a quality education for students of color. To help ensure that all students have access to the best possible education, CREC’s Institute of Teaching and Learning is inviting educators in Greater Hartford to join its Social Justice and Equity Consortium. The consortium will meet three times in 2017 to examine local and state instructional practices, curriculum, student performance, school climate and culture, policies and programs, and leadership from a social justice perspective. The group will also identify and discuss best practices and share those best practices with their colleagues. The first consortium meeting of 2017 will be held in March, and participants will deepen their understanding and improve their practice of culturally responsive teaching. To learn more about the consortium, contact Ellen Retelle, director of CREC’s Institute of Teaching and Learning, at eretelle@crec.org. ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) To ensure that area children stay warm this winter, the CREC Foundation has teamed up with the Hartford Police Department and Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids to provide children in need with hats and gloves.Pooling together their resources, the nonprofit organizations and the police department were able to purchase 300 new hats and 300 new pairs of gloves. CREC school principals, Hartford Region Open Choice Program staff, and city police officers will give the items to those who need it. “It’s extremely cold this week, and winter officially starts next week,” said Aura Alvarado, CREC’s Director of Communications and Community Relations. “All families should be mindful of the frigid weather and wear clothing that is appropriate for the season, and I am happy that the CREC Foundation is able to work with Hartford police and Mayor Mike’s Foundation to help ensure that children stay safe and warm.”The CREC Foundation supports the CREC agency’s programs, missions, and members. This includes helping students and their families in their times of need—a cause in line with Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids, an organization established to honor former Hartford Mayor Mike Peters. “We are happy to partner with CREC as the two organizations have supported kids and youth activities in Hartford,” said Christopher Peters, president of Go Hartford! Mayor Mike’s Foundation for Kids. “We think that a lot of good can be done when people come together. Every kid deserves to be safe and warm, and we are very excited to see our fundraising efforts pay off by giving back to the community in a city that Mayor Mike loved.”###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) CREC’s Kim Stroud recently became the first dance educator to ever receive a Connecticut Department of Education’s Excellence in Education Award.Stroud, who lives in Madison, serves as director of the arts at CREC’s Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School in Hartford and as general director for the Center for Creative Youth, an internationally-known summer arts program run by CREC and held at Wesleyan University. The Excellence in Education Award recognizes and honors exemplary individuals for their contributions to education in Connecticut. Award recipients are selected by their respective professional organizations.“I thank everyone for recognizing me and for recognizing dance as the valuable educational study that is,” Stroud says. “I respectfully receive this award for me, my colleagues, and my students—all who give so much to the study, elevation, and perpetuation of this beautiful form.”Stroud has worked at the CREC Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts High School since 1993, holding several different positions over the years. She’s also worked at various dance schools, was a principal soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company for 11 years, and danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. In addition, Stroud has been a master teacher at several colleges, including Connecticut College, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the University of Hartford.This is not the first time that Stroud has been recognized for her work as an educator. She’s been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the Connecticut Dance Alliance. The National Dance Education Organization named Stroud its Outstanding Dance Educator of the Year in 2005, and Stroud was named the International Arts Schools Network’s Teacher of the Year in 2009. “Dance Teacher Magazine” named her its Outstanding Dance Educator in 2012.Stroud is a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s International Dance Council.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) Two CREC soccer players have been named all-state athletes, further establishing CREC as a competitive athletic program. Victoria Piechota, a junior at CREC’s Academy of Science and Innovation from New Britain, was recently named to the girls all-state soccer team. Hartford’s Cristhian Zaldivar, a senior at the CREC Public Safety Academy, was named to the boys all-state soccer team. Both are the first student-athletes at their respective schools to receive this honor. Zaldivar is the first CREC male athlete to ever be named to an all-state team. Still in its infancy, CREC’s athletic program began in 2011 and competes in the Capital Region Athletic League conference. Soccer was offered for the first time as a junior varsity sport in the fall of 2013. Varsity teams were added in 2014, and the program has grown to develop outstanding and dedicated players like Piechota, Zaldivar, and Abbie Miller. Miller, a girls soccer player at the CREC Metropolitan Learning Center for Global and International Studies, was the first CREC student-athlete to receive all-state honors in any sport last fall. “We are committed to building a high-quality athletic program that will help keep our students physically fit, mentally tough, and compassionate and giving community members,” said CREC Athletic Director Jonathan Winer. “We congratulate Victoria and Cristhian on their success, and we look forward to following their future accomplishments.” ###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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(Hartford, CT) More than 60 education professionals, including teachers, principals, and superintendents, attended the Hartford Region Open Choice Program’s recent Dine & Discuss event, which focused on how educators can counteract the impact of implicit bias by shaping their expectations of students of difference races.The event was hosted by the Berlin and Granby school districts and allowed participants to reflect on how their perspectives, developed through multiple social influences, affect how they may unconsciously perceive students of color. They also considered potential impact on their decisions and actions and how these instances of discrimination can occur repeatedly, resulting in unequal outcomes for children of color within education settings. “Joining in collegial conversations around implicit bias was a great opportunity for our community,” said Christopher Tranberg, director of teaching and talent development for Granby Public Schools. “We often talk about the importance of having difficult conversations, and there are few topics that challenge us more than acknowledgment and understanding of implicit bias. I was happy our district could host this event, allowing us to break bread with our community, as well as neighboring district colleagues. Whether reviewing relevant research or hearing participants discuss how implicit bias has impacted their own lives, we were all able to leave the event full on many levels. Dine & Discuss gave us all an opportunity to think about what we believe, ask ourselves why, and decide how we are going to make things better for all of the students we serve every day.”Dine & Discuss event participants, such as Tranberg, learned that implicit racial bias in education can lead to lower teacher expectations, disproportionate discipline, the suspension and expulsion of students of color, and higher expectations of problem behavior within this group beginning in preschool. Other examples of implicit racial bias in education include disproportionate tracking of students of color for special education and the underrepresentation of students of color in honors and Advanced Placement classes. Teachers’ repeatedly low expectations can result in low self-esteem, lack of motivation, and poor academic performance.“Prejudice is in your head, and acting on those thoughts is discrimination,” said a Dine & Discuss participant who wished to remain anonymous. “When you become conscious of implicit bias, you can begin to be purposeful about stopping it. You tend to see what you look for. If you start to look for the good in people, you will begin to notice it. If you expect someone to act out, you will be focusing on looking for that instead of the good they do.” During the event, the group collectively identified several ways to reduce implicit racial bias. They suggested that educators analyze data to identify and correct the policies and practices that perpetuate racial and ethnic inequities and participate in facilitated race dialogues, develop relationships with people from different racial and ethnic groups, and become more cognizant of negative race-related messages that are evident in our culture and the impact they have. They also stressed the importance of practicing empathy and taking the time to get to know and build trust with students who reside in Hartford.Participants were reminded that implicit bias is a universal human condition—not a personal defect. Open Choice staff explained that everyone has to quickly categorize to make sense of the world and said that hope lies in the fact that implicit racial biases are malleable. By slowing down and reflecting upon first impressions before taking action, negative impacts on all students can be minimized, they said, adding that recognizing students of color as individuals and taking the time to hear their stories will move educators toward ensuring success for all students.###The Capitol Region Education Council was established in 1966 and is celebrating 50 years of academic excellence. Working with and for its member districts, CREC has developed a wide array of cost-effective and high-quality programs and services to meet the educational needs of children and adults in the region. CREC brings five decades of experience in education, regional collaboration, and operations to provide innovative strategies and products that address the changings needs of school districts and their students, corporations, non-profits, and individual professions. CREC regularly serves 36 towns in Greater Hartford, offering more than 120 programs to more than 150,000 students annually. CREC manages more than 35 facilities throughout the area, including 17 interdistrict magnet schools. More information about CREC and CREC’s award-winning schools is available at www.crec.org....

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