Director of Special Services
Welcome back to the beginning of yet another exciting school year here at Summit Hill. As we enter into the new school year, we are continuing our journey to offer the best posible educational services for our students. In the area of special services Summit Hill has used mostly a traditional model for supporting student learning. This model is typical in most school settings. With the traditional model we look at a child's deficits in learning and look toward a series of evaluations to determine the appropriate level of "special education services" a child requires.

As our district continues to grow so does the amount and level of supports our children need. This year our focus is on developing a more flexible service delivery model. This type of service model looks more at the child's responsiveness to specific interventions. A flexible model does not rely soley on special education to support children with learning and/or behavioral challenges. In contrast to the traditional service delivery, there are several key differences in our new approach: (1) early intervention in the general education learning environment is emphasized, (2) this system maximizes all staff's expertise and services, and makes effective use of all existing resources, (3) the intent is to asses the child's strengths and areas of weaknesses based on their academic performance or behavior in the general education setting,(4)interventions are delivered in this setting and are based on reliable and measurable information,(5) the child's response to the intervention is directly and frequently monitored and charted, and (6) this system is intended to de-emphasize categories and lables while encouraging creativity, problem solving, and providng support to students in a timely manner.

To begin our journey, the month of september will be our, "Get the message out" month. Our psychologists and myself will be working in each of the buildings with all Summit Hill staff to prepare them and train them in this paradigm change. As we move into the school year we will be asking for parent's to participate in the process. If you have an interest, in participating on one of our problem solving teams, please call the office of the Director of Special Services.

We are looking forward to a great year with lots of opportunities to see our students learn and grow.

Vikki Parkinson
Director of Special Services
(815) 469-9103