Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC)
What is the Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC)?
The purpose of a Special Education Advisory Council is to build full, equal and equitable partnerships between families, the school District and community partners, on a council that gives advisory opinions to the Board of Education on matters pertaining to the education and safety of students with disabilities.
Please note that general membership is open to any interested GPS parent or guardian of a child with a disability, previously known to have a disability, or suspected of having a disability, under the IDEA or Section 504, or who is currently eligible to receive Special Education or 504 accommodations and services, from ages 3-21, and who are both residents of the Town of Greenwich. To learn more about the Greenwich SEAC, please refer to our by-laws.
If you would like to be part of the Greenwich SEAC's general membership, please complete this short form to add your email to the distribution list. For the purpose of confidentiality, the GPS does not share the email addresses of families receiving special education services with the Greenwich SEAC. Therefore, all Greenwich SEAC mailings will be distributed by the Superintendent on behalf of the Greenwich SEAC.
SEAC Meetings
SEAC Members
Below are the current members of the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC). These voting members were selected at random from a list of interested applicants. Members represent a broad range of perspectives.
Members:
- Robin Baldwin, Parent
- Andrea Cosby, Parent
- Jennifer Kutai, Parent
- Don McGuire, Parent
- Kimberly O'Donnell, Parent
- Daria Pestone, Parent
- Jeannine Tanton, Parent
- Leah Thornton, Parent
- Kathy Walker, Parent
- Dawn Zimmerman, Parent
- Bruce MacLennan, Community Member
- Abby Anders, Administrator
- Jennifer Dunn, General Education Teacher
- Courtney Powers, General Education Teacher
- Virginia Plath-Kelly, Special Education Teacher
- Beth Forger, Special Education Teacher
- Jennifer Donat, Literary Specialist, GPS
- Maya Feldman, SLP, GPS
- Audra O'Donovan, Vice Chair, Parent
- Caroline Lerum, Vice Chair, Parent
- Jenni Reynolds, Chair, Parent
- Pedro Campos, Alternate Parent
- Raquel Sosa, Alternate Parent
- Julia Reisch, Alternate Educator
- Maria Jukic, Alternate Educator
Non-Voting Contributing Members:
- Dr. Toni Jones, Superintendent, Greenwich Public Schools
- Dr. Stacey Heiligenthaler, Chief Officer of Special Education and Student Supports, Greenwich Public Schools
- Karen Hirsh, Greenwich Board of Education
- Karen Kowalski, Greenwich Board of Education
- Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony, Greenwich Board of Education
- Jennifer Lussier, CPAC Consultant
- Lynne Rule, CPAC Consultant
SEAC Enrichment Presentations
SEAC’s Executive Functions and Working Memory Workshops The Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC) and Office of Special Education and Student Supports held a two-part workshop that featured Dr. Lydia Soifer, who discussed executive functions and working memory. For those that missed it, or would like to review it again, please follow the links below for the printed presentations. For further details contact: greenwichseac@gmail.com.
Video: Collaborative and Proactive Solutions - Moving from Power and Control to Collaboration and Problem Solving
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/491608931
