TOWN OF ARLINGTON
BOARD OF YOUTH SERVICES
670R Massachusetts Avenue Mary Deyst, Chair
Arlington, Massachusetts 02476 Jeannette Mills, Vice Chair
MINUTES
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Present: Mary Deyst, chair; Jeannette Mills, vicechair; Donna Dolan, Carlene Newell; Larry Greco; Cindy Sheridan; Dorothy Williams; Elaine Shea; Dave McKenna, ex officio; Elizabeth Oppedisano, ex officio; Patsy Kraemer, ex officio.
Absent: Joan Robbio, Gene Lucarelli, Jack Bowler
Guests: Charles Skidmore, AHS Principal; Phyllis Brown, Barbara Tosti, Leon Cantor, Linda Suzuki, Paul Grossman, all AYCC staff members.
1) Introductions – Charles Skidmore, AHS Principal, was introduced to the group. Patsy gave a brief explanation to Charley about the activities of AYCC. Phyllis Brown and Paul Grossman gave an overview of the specific activities AYCC does in the schools as part of the school contract. AYCC works with special programs in all levels of the school system – at the High School specifically with Work Place and CLASS programs. The students are required to be in a counseling relationship as part of the program. Phyllis stated that we work with three categories of students:
a. The learning disabled
b. The emotionally impaired
c. Those with severe social and family problems
Other aspects of our work in the schools includes crisis intervention and consultation with the teaching staff. The AYCC team works closely with the teaching staff in building group cohesion and helping the students with social skills. Various group activities are used to enhance the cohesion, including “pizza therapy,” “special breakfasts,” project adventure, and other special group exercises.
Charley told the group that there is a group of high school students who “fall between the cracks.” They don’t qualify for the existing programs- Workplace and CLASS – and yet are not doing well with the mainstream program. He plans to develop another program to meet this need. He is very interested in coordinating with AYCC for that effort.
He also said that he finds the climate at AHS very respectful between students and adults.
Donna Dolan added that from her perspective at the Ottoson there is a very large unmet need and that they find almost no help from the special education department for this need.
Under correspondence the board received a request to support the MLK foundation and dinner. Fifty dollars was voted unanimously – motion made by Carlene Newell and seconded by Donna Dolan.
Board members were reminded of the Chamber of Commerce awards dinner on November 16th.
The Board agreed to invite the new Town Manager Brian Sullivan to the next meeting in early December. They also decided to invite representatives of the various assistance programs in Arlington to the January meeting.
Next meeting: Wednesday, December 1, 2005.
| 
