Cooperative Corner

Hello Friends!

I hope this message finds you all well and ready for our Spring Break shortly upon us. I want to thank you for all you have been doing to support our students and each other this school year. I recognize there have been many rewarding experiences as well as challenging ones this year and I want to thank you for continuing to show up and caring for our students and staff in the wonderful way you all do.

There is a lot going on in our SASED Community. I hope you take time to read through this newsletter as it provides more details about our strategic plan, restructuring, and important dates not to miss. In short, I have been working with many of my administrative colleagues on developing better ways to support our students, our staff, and our families. As such, our Board just approved some administrative changes and realignment of administrative positions. Please review the Board Briefs for more information. I encourage everyone to read through this newsletter as there is new and important information included.

I also feel the need to address some of the uncertainties facing education these days. Friends, I do not know where this journey is ultimately going to take education, but I do know with great sincerity that our leadership team, Board of Directors, Governing Board, and the District Special Education Directors support and value each and everyone of us. I want you all to know that. Additionally, the Facility Planning Committee is currently investigating options to expand our services and to explore more centralized locations. This is an incredibly exciting time for SASED and I am fortunate to be part of this incredible organization as we explore ways to build, expand, and strengthen our SASED Community.

This past month I was able to visit our Vision Program at Addison Trail and our Hearing Program classrooms at North. At Addison Trail, one of our students showed me the beautiful garden he has created. Students were busy getting ready to go out for a community trip and staff were ensuring students had everything they needed. North was an amazing experience. Our staff and students were both signing and speaking (as able), all were engaged, and everyone was working together.

I also want to thank some of our classrooms for decorating the SASED Administrative Building display case with student work. Our classes at Hillcrest, Lisle, and Cass Jr. High created beautiful work that is now being showcased at the SAC. A picture of the artwork is included above.

In closing, I wish you all a wonderful Spring Break! Whether you are traveling, visiting relatives, or staying put, please find joy and pleasure in all you do. Be safe, have fun, and rest friends.

Warm regards,

Dr. Kim Dryier

Strategic Plan Updates:

High Quality Staffing:

• SASED has been well represented at several job fairs.

• SASED is hosting a job fair on March 19th

Exemplary Programs and Services:

• A relevant and comprehensive staff development plan has been worked on extensively and will be shared with staff in the upcoming weeks.

• A Literacy Committee has been established with several staff and administration and started meeting a few weeks ago.

Communications:

• SASED Committees continue to meet to discuss Culture, Recruitment and Retention, Professional Development, Literacy, Mentoring, and Processes and Procedures

• SASED Sunshine Club sponsored “Where is Darby O’Sased” and continue to send sunshine messages out

• SASED District Office will be returning to Feed Our Starving Children to volunteer to pack meals

• The Process and Procedures Committee finalized the Employee Handbook and Student Handbook for next year.

• A Business Services Manual is in draft form

• April 27- SASED’s first annual SASED Community Walk- staff and families welcome

• May 2- Rich Laren Outdoor Learning Day

• May 9- SASED Staff Appreciation Picnic and Awards

• May 17- Night at the Museum- for our students and families PK-5th grade

Operations:

• Facility planning is well underway.

• SY 2026 Budget is in the process of being developed and finalized

Continuing the tour of our facilities, our Board of Directors met on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at Winfield Primary School. Remember-our Board of Directors Meetings are now recorded. You can find the posting of the recording on our website on the Board of Directors tab. It will be posted the Friday after every Board of Directors Meeting. We need to apologize for last month’s meeting not being taped. The meeting was hosted at Lisle and there was an unexpected glitch with our software. We do not anticipate any issues moving forward. A summary of this month’s Board Meeting includes:

• Our Board Meeting was hosted at Winfield Primary this month. Prior to the start of our Board Meeting, Board Members were led on a tour of Winfield Primary, where many of our classrooms will be hosted next year. Next month our meeting will be held back at the SASED Administrative Center.

• Our Board approved the consent agenda, including our personnel recommendations and our financial reports.

• Please note the resignation pages of the consent agenda. In addition to some of our certified and non-certified staff, Ms. Julie Grohn, Mr. Keith Zmijewski, and Ms. Darcie Vance have resigned their positions at the end of this school year. We wish all our colleagues the best in their future endeavors.

• SASED will be ending their long term partnership with Early CHOICES at the end of this school year. The work our friends in Early CHOICES have completed has been exceptional and we wish them the very best moving forward.

• SASED Enrollment report was reviewed. Our program enrollment is holding strong between 380-390 students.

• The HR report identified 16.0 unfilled positions, a decrease of .5 since last month.

• A summary of the Facilities Planning Committee that met on February 26, 2025 was provided:.

• VP Trinh and Amanda Nash from Arcon presented findings from the focus groups and shared several options for consideration moving forward.

• Here is the entire presentation.

• Next steps include direction from the Board of Directors to pursue further investigation of the noted options and/or provide additional options to pursue.

• Dr. Dryier and Mrs. Wisniewski shared a proposed annual cost savings of close to 5.7 million dollars for a centralized location. Details can be found here.

• Lastly, Dr. Dryier will be meeting with a small group of district business managers and special education directors to discuss the potential of expanding SASED services.

• Here is a copy of the presentation to the Board of Directors on March 19, 2025 summarizing our work with the Facilities Planning Committee.

• Overall, VP and Amanda presented the results from the focus groups, as well as presented the committee with 8 options moving forward. The Facilities Committee is suggesting moving forward with further exploration of 3 options:

• Maintain 9-12 permanent satellite classrooms (DHH, VI, and SLE) and build onto Southeast to accommodate everything else (viability concerns present).

• Maintain 9-12 permanent satellite classrooms (DHH, VI, and SLE), keep Southeast as it is, and purchase new land and build a new building for everything else.

• Maintain 9-12 permanent satellite classrooms (DHH, VI, and SLE), build onto Southeast with a focus on programs for our more southern districts, and purchase land in our northern area for to support our northern districts

• For an even more abridged summary of the Facilities Planning Committee meeting, please click here.

• A summary of the Finance Committee, that met on March 5, was shared. Details included:
• A new billing model was reviewed and suggested for SASED’s audiological department. Tara Corral presented the following presentation. The recommendations include a more equitable model of billing for our audiological services. Dr. Dryier will review the recommendations at the next Special Education Directors Meeting, for feedback. Once feedback is received, changes to the audiological billing will be brought forward to the Finance Committee again, and then the Board of Directors for approval.
• The Finance Committee reviewed data from other cooperatives regarding rental costs for the school year and for ESY. SASED has one of the higher rental fees for the regular school year. ESY data is difficult to obtain, but a few of the other coops noted a flat fee of $1,000 per classroom is charged. The Finance Committee asked Dr. Dryier and Mrs. Wisniewski to meet with D45 and D66 to discuss and bring forward a recommendation for ESY rental fees.

• Mrs. Tammie Schmallo, from PMA, presented funding options to our Board of Directors that would support the recommendations of the Facility Planning Committee. You can view her presentation here.

• There was a lively conversation about facility options and funding for them. We will continue to pursue the recommendations of a more centralized location, with a few satellite classes, as well as funding options.

• Please note, we are in the very, very early stages of our facility planning. More information will be shared as plans develop.

• SASED recipients of this quarter’s MVE were shared. Please view this presentation to see the winners.

• The Board of Directors approved a new fee structure for our ESY leases. The new fee structure is a flat cost of $1500 per ESY classroom and $750 per ESY workspace.

• After closed session, the Board of Directors approved the destruction of closed session recordings.

• The Board of Directors approved a new certified sub rate of $145 dollars per day, an increase from $114, starting with the 2025-2026 school year. They also approved a 4% increase for Non-CBA and Administrative Staff.

• Lastly, new job descriptions were approved for several of our administrative staff to support the realignment plan reviewed in the section below. You can view the new approved job descriptions here:

• Elementary Program Coordinator

• Intermediate Program Coordinator

• Principal of Southeast

• Program Administrator

• IEP Compliance Manager

Since the beginning of this year, many have noted concern with the exceptional needs in our classrooms, the emergent needs of instructional support and curriculum, and an increase in administrative support in the classrooms. As such, many members of the SASED Administrative team have been working on ways to allow for a more proactive approach rather than a reactive one. As such, an Administrative Realignment Plan was developed and most recently approved at the March Board Meeting. The main goal of this realignment plan is to allow SASED to be proactive with instruction and curriculum rather than reactive with emergency situations. Our current structure has a program administrator assigned to each program. These program administrators are responsible for all IEP’s, instruction, curriculum, social emotional functioning, and program needs. Our program administrators currently spend most of their time reacting to problems and attending IEP meetings, rather than being embedded in the program strengthening instruction. As such, here is a summary of the realignment plan:

• We currently have 8 Program Administrators and 2 Program Administrator Assistant- We are NOT increasing administrative positions, just realigning many of them and eliminating one of the Program Administrator Assistants positions.

• Two of these current program administrators will be promoted to the Elementary and Intermediate Program Coordinators. These positions will be working closely with Dr. Vanderwoude and our teaching staff on instructional practices. One of these positions will also be overseeing the SIIS team, and replacing the current Program Administrator overseeing that program.

• The title for the Program Administrator at Southeast will be changed to Principal of Southeast and the job description will be more aligned to the role of a principal.

• We will continue to have 3 Program administrators. A revised Job Description for two of the program administrators can be found here. Their main role will be to provide day to day, face to face support in all of our classrooms, teacher evaluation, and staff recruitment. Our other program administrator who oversees OT and PT services and will not be impacted.

• The last two remaining program administrator positions will be changed to IEP Compliance Managers. Their main tasks will be to attend and facilitate every SASED IEP meeting and recruit, evaluate, and organize all non-certified assistants.

• Here are two visual aids of our current org chart and the new restructured org chart-specifically falling under the Assistant Director of Programs. This may help better understand the changes and restructuring.

We imagine there are several questions about next steps. Immediate next steps include posting for the Principal at Southeast and completing administrative contracts in support of this restructuring plan. Once the contracts are approved at the next Board Meeting, we will be able to share more information. At this point, no additional information can be shared. Your patience and trust is very appreciated this next month. I can promise you, these changes were not made haphazardly. Much thought, planning, attention and insight went into these changes. The ultimate goal of these changes is to strengthen classroom instruction and curriculum, have more day to day administrative support, increase our techniques in working with the exceptional needs in our classrooms ultimately resulting in better student outcomes and programming.

Apologies again for the complications with our google meeting yesterday. The Town Hall Meeting recording can be found here.

Additionally, here are the visual aids that were mentioned in the Town Hall Meeting:

Focus Group Common Themes

Facility Options

The Why

Managing Complex Change

Lastly, if you have questions about anything from the Town Hall Meeting, please use this link to submit your questions.

Here is the running list of Q and A's.

Spring is officially here! It is a time of renewal, hope, and growth. I see this happening across our programs and related services every day!

Our students continue to show incredible growth, and our educators remain steadfast in their commitment to students and continual improvement. An example of this is the literacy committee who has been hard at work researching best practices in literacy instruction for all students, especially SASED students with unique and wonderful exceptionalities. This month, we reviewed the ISBE Comprehension Literacy Plan to identify the core instructional practices of literacy and how we can improve our work at SASED to improve literacy outcomes for all of our students. The literacy committee has representatives from every program and related service department in SASED, which is crucial to ensure that the guidance document and curriculum plan being developed meets the needs of all of our students.

There continues to be ongoing research on building our programs, and we are very excited to be partnering with researchers and organizations who have developed frameworks and guides grounded in evidence. One such example is our burgeoning collaboration with Dr. Mark Dixon, who has created the AIM (Accept, Identify, Move) Program that incorporates trauma-informed practices, mindfulness, and models of acceptance commitment therapy. This work is beginning at Pathways, and we will be engaging in professional development to improve the programming and outcomes of our students. There is also research being completed on Performance Functional Assessments (PFA) and Skill Based Treatments (SBT) and the use of these two research-based practices in our SLE program. Another exciting thing blossoming is in our Transition program, as we are brainstorming and developing ways to increase the authentic and meaningful ways our students participate in the community and explore different vocations.

Indeed, it is a season of change and growth. It is important to recognize and validate that change is inevitable. Change can also be hard; however, it is only through change that we can grow. I am excited about all the ways SASED is growing, and I am grateful to work for an organization that embraces change in order for growth to occur.

Dr. Lizzy Vander Woude

Assistive Technology

School Improvement Instructional Support

Southeast- Pathways Program Description

Project SEARCH Program Description

Structured Learning Environment (SLE) Program Description

Supportive Medical Needs Program Program Description

Transition Program Description

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program Description Audiology Services Itinerant Services

Visually Impaired Program Description Itinerant Services

Occupational and Physical Therapy

We have a lot going on at SASED these next few weeks. Please click on the below links to learn more and RSVP.

March 21, Rock Your Socks

April 27, SASED Walk & Roll, Community Walk at Herrick Lake Flyer in Spanish RSVP by clicking this link

May 2, Rich Laren Day of Outdoor Learning

May 9, Staff Appreciation Picnic and Staff Recognition

May 17, Night at the Museum (for SASED students EC-5th grade and families only) RSVP is mandatory, click her to RSVP

Our survey this month focuses on the SASED Steering Committee, end of year priorities, future town hall meetings and assignments next year. Please take time to complete this survey. Your input is being requested and will be taken into consideration as we move forward.

Thank you to those who responded to last months survey. Based on the responses, we are not going to be able to host a Paint Party. That said, there are many activities planned for the remainder of this school year. Please check out the SASED Social Scene in this Newsletter for more information.

Click on the icon to learn more.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination for MVE this past month.

For this recognition cycle, we are proud to honor the following staff for their unwavering dedication to teamwork and collaboration. Their contributions have had a significant impact on their department, students, and fellow staff members:

• LESLIE BENTLEY
• KRISTIE KATZEL
• CAITLIN DALTON
• CLEO KENNELLY
• NATALIE GAONA
• KIM ZARAGOZA
• JACKIE JACKSON

Click here for more information.

Second Semester Focus:

• Focus 2 (March 16 - May 15): Innovation and Creativity

Click here to nominate an exceptional staff member for Focus 2, Innovation and Creativity!

At SASED, we are united in our mission to enhance communication across our cooperative. We deeply value each and every opinion and encourage all stakeholders to share their thoughts and ideas. Your suggestions are not only welcomed but are essential in helping us reach our shared goals. By working together, we can build a vibrant and supportive culture that enriches the everyday experiences of both our students and staff! Please share your thoughts and suggestions here or click on the suggestion box. Please know, your email address is being collected to allow for potential further dialogue regarding your idea/suggestion.

To update or not to update

One of the first questions we usually ask when we get a ticket is have you restarted your computer and have you installed all updates. Both devices and operating systems have bugs that developers try to fix or security holes need patching. New updates also usually bring new features to make devices and software work better. For example, you can check out what is new in each version of Google Chrome with this link chrome://whats-new/. If something isn't working right, many times an update and restart will fix the issue. The most frustrating thing we experience is when an update breaks something. You can lose connectivity, a printer starts having a mind of its own, or your computer can just stop working. We have to either wait for the next update to fix it or try to uninstall the update which can be challenging. Our approach is to delay a few days before pushing updates out to devices. Most of the time, these updates are necessary and helpful but not always perfect.

Here is an article outlining how an organization used the Managing Complex Change theory when working on curriculum:

Rewriting Curriculum: Managing This Complex Change

Previous Readings:

What Will Teacher Shortages Look Like in 2024 and Beyond?

Illinois Teacher Shortage Persists, Survey Finds

Supporting Student Behavior After Breaks

Helping Students Cope With Returning to School After Winter Break

“How to Slow Down and Savor the Holidays”

“Six Ways to Keep Your Cool During the Holidays”

10 Evidence-based instructional strategies for the classroom

Post-COVID Learning Losses

COVID-19 Pandemic triggers 25% increase in prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide

"Trauma Informed Teaching Strategies"

"Why Teachers Should Be Trauma Informed"

"How to Practice Self Compassion: 8 Technique and Tips"

"What is Teacher Self-Care and How Do you Practice It?"

https://self-compassion.org/

Big Ideas in Special Education-Specially Designed Instruction High-Leverage Practices, Explicit Instruction, and Intensive Instruction

NAMI resources for parents to support students over long breaks.

“Guide to PUNS.” You can find it here.

ISBE Parent Resources

SASED Website

Shared Journeys: Staff and Parent Experiences at SASED Video988

Suicide & Crisis Hotline

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

Safe2Help Illinois

All Kids-Healthcare for kids

Where do polar bears keep their money?

A snowbank

Why does a duck have feathers?

To cover its butt quack.

Jokes compliments of Emilia Ariano and Deborah Wetherill's son.

Please continue to submit your jokes to Dr. Dryier at kdryier@sased.org.

Keep the positivity going! The You've Been Sunshined program is a wonderful way for staff to recognize and celebrate each other, offer words of encouragement, or acknowledge a job well done. If you know someone who could use a little sunshine in their day, simply complete this form to send them a note of encouragement or celebration. Let's continue spreading kindness!

As we embrace the fresh energy of spring, we are filled with gratitude for our incredible students, dedicated staff, and supportive families who make our school community truly special. The longer days and blooming flowers bring new opportunities for learning, growth, and connection!

We had an absolute blast last week with our special visitor, Darby O'SASED, at the Administrative Center! From his playful antics to his sneaky hiding spots, Darby kept us all on our toes—and laughing every step of the way. The search for him became the highlight of the week! Check out these fun photos of Darby in action, and a huge shoutout to the Sunshine Committee for bringing so much joy to our week!

Don't forget! Our Community Walk is happening on Sunday, April 27th at Herrick Lake in Wheaton from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM—a perfect way to enjoy the fresh air and connect with one another. [Click here for more details!]

Thank you for being part of our amazing journey! We can't wait for the adventures ahead this season—stay tuned for more exciting updates next month. Until then, enjoy the beauty of spring, embrace new opportunities, and keep making wonderful memories!