New leadership steps in for Grafton SEPAC
The third time was the charm for Grafton SEPAC, which elected new officers Thursday night after a COVID-19 induced period of inactivity and a tumultuous and unproductive meeting last month.
Heather Nadeau and Liora Bram were elected co-chairs, Sarah Goggin was elected secretary, and Alison Wilson is now treasurer.
SEPAC is Grafton’s Special Education Parent Advisory Council, required in every public school district by Massachusetts law to advise the School Committee on matters that pertain to the education and safety of students with disabilities. Membership is open to all parents of children with disabilities and it is a self-governing group that makes its own bylaws.
Included in those bylaws: the requirement that only those parents who had attended a SEPAC meeting in the last year. That led to a three-hour meeting on September 11 in which 61 parents, in a public Zoom meeting, were quizzed by former Chair Melissa Lackey for more than an hour on their identities, residency, the last meeting they had attended, and how many children they had requiring special needs services.
This time, the roll call was taken in private via a Google form.
The new officers vowed to run the group with transparency and communication… as soon as they get the logins for the group’s Facebook page, email account, and website.
“Like all of you, we are the fiercest advocates for our children,” Nadeau said.
