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Efficiency Meets Impact: Benjamin Franquiz and Kathleen Petrenko on Smarter Systems & Partnerships in Special Education · Exceptional Educators Podcast by FrenalyticsEDU

• 0:00
  Matt Giovanniello: Welcome to the Exceptional Educators Podcast by FrenalyticsEDU, where innovation meets inclusion in education. I'm your co host, Matt Giovanello, the CEO and co founder of Frenalytics. At Frenalytics, we put special education and English language learners front and center. Our award winning FrenalyticsEDU platform helps streamline progress monitoring, improve communication and compliance, and offers truly personalized learning for your students' availabilities. Each episode of our podcast features candid conversations with district and school leaders, classroom changemakers, ed tech founders, and industry executives, all dedicated to transforming learning for each student, especially our learners with unique abilities.
• 0:36
  With a focus on extraordinary educators and the exceptional students they serve, we explore the latest in special education, accessible technology, and inclusive leadership. In this episode, Exceptional Educators is exceptionally thrilled to welcome my friends from Long Island in the Special Education and Student Services Department at Eastport South Manor Central School District in New led by Benjamin Franquiz, the Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Student Support Services, and Kathleen Petrenko, the Director of Special Education. They're both known for their systems thinking and collaborative leadership styles, and Ben and Kathleen guide their teams in building inclusive programs that align intervention, instruction, and student well-being across the district. Ben and Kathleen, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Happy Friday.
• 1:15
  Benjamin Franquiz: Thanks, Happy Friday. Thanks for having us here, man.
• 1:17
  Matt Giovanniello: We're excited to have you on for your first ever podcast. What we love to ask all of our guests, Ben and Kathleen, is what is your why? What brought you into this crazy world of education? What's keeping you here? And what are you excited about at your district for these years ahead?
• 1:30
  Maybe Ben, we'll start with you.
• 1:31
  Benjamin Franquiz: Sure. I had a teacher in middle school who I was just very fond of and of looked up to. His name is Tony Fiorelli and he was tough and he held everybody accountable and he just inspired me to want to be a social studies teacher. And that's what I ended up pursuing. From there, was a little bit of a path, but I ended up in the special ed world.
• 1:50
  I'm getting a master's degree in special education. And my first job ended up being a special education social studies teacher. And I've always been fortunate to have supportive people around me who were supportive of my wanting to move, make moves within my career. One day I found myself as a chairperson. And then the next thing I know was applying for director of special education jobs.
• 2:10
  It's been a great ride, one that was unexpected, but I wouldn't trade it for a thing.
• 2:16
  Matt Giovanniello: You're like, How'd this happen? That's awesome though. I think that speaks to the power of a coach and some mentors and people who place some trust and real potential in you, and realizing that you can climb through the ranks too and look all the way up to the top of district leadership. And one day from social studies teacher to administrator and assistant sup of special education, here you are. Like, it is possible.
• 2:34
  You've proven that out to be true. That's awesome, Ben. Thanks. Kathleen, how about you?
• 2:37
  Kathleen Petrenko: My why? I grew up in New York City, and, always felt like I wanted to help children. When I started my career, I thought I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, found out that that is a very difficult job and switched over to school psychology. Just every day when I get up, I'm just happy to help students in need, children in need. And through the years as a school psychologist, just kind of continued to snowball to leadership opportunities.
• 3:08
  And it grew into the position I'm in now, which I'm so grateful for. And I try to share that with everyone that I work with, that our ultimate vision and goal is to help as many students as we can.
• 3:20
  Matt Giovanniello: I love that, Kathleen. Thank you for sharing. Your initial stories of entering the career of education are really inspirational, it's amazing to be chatting here today. Let's talk a little bit more about what your district's special education program looks like in practice. We know that the needs of students on Long Island and beyond over the past couple of years especially has changed significantly.
• 3:38
  In special education, the services that your department is offering spans well beyond that. We're thinking about mental health now. We're thinking about academic and social and behavioral needs. What does it look like across your district? How are you serving your students present day?
• 3:51
  And let's think a little bit into the future. What do you think that this next school year, next two school years might further evolve into in servicing your students?
• 3:57
  Benjamin Franquiz: The Eastport South Carolina community is really fortunate to have We have an extensive program here for special education and a continuum of services. I've worked in two other districts that were much larger and they had that same type of continuum, but there are many districts, especially out here on the East End, that aren't able to provide a full continuum of services, and we can here. We've got everything from related service only students. We have integrated co teaching classes. We've got self contained classes, fifteen-one, twelve-one-one, eight-one-one.
• 4:29
  And we're very fortunate. We've got behavior specialists within this district. We've got psychologists, social workers in every building, speech therapists. So this community is really fortunate to have a full service special education program running up in their district.
• 4:44
  Matt Giovanniello: I think it's really important to remind people, especially in these smaller central school districts across New York, whether it's on Long Island, but also even in suburban and more rural settings upstate, that when you have not as large of a school enrollment, it tends to go hand in hand with not having as many supports to service your students with disabilities. The fact that you're able to deliver on both of those promises, offering small school sizes and classroom sizes, while having a robust special education program, it ain't easy. So I'm really glad that you're giving us an idea of what special ed looks like at Eastport South Manor. It's huge. Let's get into a little bit some of the innovative programs you've been implementing recently.
• 5:18
  I know there are a number of big tech advancements, a number of various pieces you've been putting into place to better service not only your students in special education, but also the staff that are educating them as well. Walk us through what you've done in this past school year, what's coming out in the near future. We're curious to hear what's going well.
• 5:33
  Benjamin Franquiz: If we talk about the tech side, we've been really fortunate to have I think teachers are really fortunate to be teaching in this era of AI, and that's something that we've embraced early as a district. We do subscribe to several AI platforms that we make available for teachers, and it really enhances their lessons in making their ability to differentiate instruction, change levels for reading, come up with different types of questions for students, help with lesson design, help with data collection. It's endless. And on the teacher side, they've really been fortunate. And we've been fortunate that our previous tech director and our current tech director have embraced it and really pushed it in the district as a positive instead of shying away from it and worrying about.
• 6:14
  I know a lot of districts are worried about the student implications. We do have our guardrails up in that area, but we've really embraced it on the teacher side to encourage them to use it. That's one area with AI.
• 6:26
  Matt Giovanniello: That's huge. I imagine though, Ben, that as you're introducing these new supports, technologies, processes that are AI driven, you're going have some teachers that are on board and a lot of teachers that are a little more hesitant or, you know, we often hear that veteran teachers are like, I don't want that. I need to kind of see it play out first. So, as you're thinking about ways that go hand in hand for systems change about supporting your aids and your paraprofessionals, what did that training look like? What did that buy in look like?
• 6:51
  How are you continuing to provide coaching that leads to the success of these tools so they're not just there and unused or even worse, just met with hesitation?
• 6:58
  Benjamin Franquiz: We have had to have training sessions, multiple training sessions. Again, we are fortunate that we have a tech an ed tech person who's a who was a teacher in the classroom, who's very familiar with technology and very hands on with with our teachers. So if they need the district will provide initial trainings. And then if they need sort of a la carte trainings or refreshers, we're able to provide them with those things with these employees that we have on staff. Again, our tech director, our past and current have been very hands on with training staff.
• 7:29
  And a lot of people, once you put it in their hands and you encourage them to use it, you show them the possibilities. They really come around to it. There's very few people that are, if any, that are just bent on not using it. When they see the possibilities that it opens up for students and themselves, because it's possible to really create a great lesson and reduce your workload at the same time while increasing opportunities and differentiation for students. Once they see that, they tend to want to use the tools.
• 7:58
  Kathleen Petrenko: And we talk about these AI tools at our department meetings and we use examples, we model for them. We're able to use AI tools, we use them to show that, you know, it's okay to take risks and the benefit of the different AI platforms. Ben and I are constantly looking at new AI opportunities and different tools that can be used. As you know, as you know, AI is always changing and always developing. We're always trying to look for the next thing to help, you know, make teaching more to make it more accessible for our students and easier for our teachers and Ben and I often joke about like, you know how lucky teachers are now because many years ago when we were, you know, in the classrooms and in these schools, everything was by hand then would often say like I'll be at I would be in the evenings working on my lesson plans for the day, writing everything out, planning everything.
• 8:53
  I remember having to go to the library to look things up still and like write things down. So, you know, there it's a really exciting exciting time for teachers.
• 9:02
  Benjamin Franquiz: Do tend to try something and then we'll use it in a meeting, or I'll show it in one of the things I do is is teach new teacher academy here, for second year teachers. You know, bring something in there, or we'll just have a session for half the lesson on, hey, let's go over Gemini in Google because we are a Google school. You know, how could this help you organize your email? I mean, simple things. Sometimes it's back end stuff, that teachers get inundated with, like their email accounts.
• 9:35
  I've seen thousands of emails and I'm like, okay, this is not good for you or anybody else. Let's take a minute and we'll show you how we can empty that inbox so you get what's important and you get through it. So there's been lots of times. Also a tech nerd. Definitely.
• 9:51
  As I told you earlier, I listen to podcasts all the time. There's about four or five podcasts, tech podcasts I subscribe to. So I'll hear something that's been released on Google Workspace and I'm coming in and I'm going right to the tech director's office saying, hey, Doctor. King, this just came out. Let's make sure this is turned on in the console so we could get this out to our administrative staff and start using it.
• 10:12
  Matt Giovanniello: They must be like, how are you discovering this so quickly, Ben? It'll be like, This podcast, I listen to it my way to work. That's awesome though, because I think that's one of the key ways to not only get out from under this immense workload that educators historically feel and is only getting worse, but also how do we now get ahead of it too? Where, Kathleen, you've got a really good point that the needs of students has grown significantly over this past decade and more, but so have advancements in technology and especially over the past two to three years, advancements in AI to use that keyword, save teachers time. How does that, in reality, become a thing that teachers benefit from?
• 10:43
  And I think that you're alluding to a couple of examples and ways that you've done exactly that. Special education, as we know, on Long Island and beyond, is a budget line item that is only growing in cost to service students and their growing needs. Yet at the same time, the amount of money you get as a part of your budget may not necessarily reflect your expenditures. And so, AI could be a way that you can help save money in delivering effective special education services, while also ironically making it more individualized. So, talk to me a little bit about what you've done district wide over the past couple of years in that effort to watch what you're spending, but also be more effective in the services you are purchasing and delivering?
• 11:20
  Kathleen Petrenko: So we're just, we are purchasing a lot of different technology, but we want to make sure that it's useful technology. So like Ben said, we usually will try things out first to make sure that it's, you know, effective to what our vision is for our departments. And then sometimes we'll ask teachers to try trial out some of that stuff to see how it works in the classroom. So that's one way that, you know, we are ensuring that the technology that we're utilizing is actually things that are helpful to the students. One of my favorite things to talk about is we switched over.
• 11:55
  Ben really made the switch over from paper based letters and reports and things like that to electronic based parent communication system, which is one way that the district would save thousands of dollars and continues to save money because with just something simple as getting parents and teachers on board with utilizing the parent communication system electronically rather than receiving, you know, the paper based letters and saving on envelopes and postage. Just one way that we can take that money and use it towards more useful things for the students programs, right curriculum PDs things that other areas that we're focusing on. That that's just one very significant way that I think we're saving money and and and moving it into areas that are more appropriate.
• 12:46
  Benjamin Franquiz: Couple things we did was years ago, we moved to a digital testing platform, which, it's not necessarily cheap, but it's cheaper than the paper. And it also, what it did really was it created a steady line item where we knew what that expenditure was every year. New tests, new standardized tests when they're released are very expensive and you need to order a lot of kits because you got to get those kits, you know, circulated throughout the district. So you could, you know, your line item could go one year from 10,015 thousand dollars in testing supplies to all of a sudden on that year five, hit like 50,000 or $60,000 because a new test is out and you need to have that on board for your staff. So what this did is it allowed us to have access to all their tests.
• 13:32
  And it's a little bit of a higher cost each year than maybe an off year for testing, but nowhere near. You know, maybe now it's, $15,000 a year, but that's now a steady number. And when a new test comes out, we have instant access to those digital tests. We don't have to buy those paper and hard kits that were, you know, really, really expensive. So that's another way we kind of save money and streamline some money.
• 13:55
  Ms. Petrenko mentioned the collaboration portal, which really cut down on postage and not only postage and stamps and envelopes, but employee time. The amount of time our clericals were spending hours printing out letters and stuffing envelopes. And now that time goes into other things that they're able to do. A couple other things, because budget is always a yearly concern and things go up.
• 14:19
  We thought about, we rethought, reimagined our programming for some of our, more needy students in our, self contained programs. And we, we changed the model of speech to pro to include programmatic speech for, I mean, now this year we introduced programmatic OT. So those services are part of our programs. So those kids get speech. Some of those kids get speech programmatically forty minutes a day, five times a week.
• 14:43
  So it lessened the need for individual speech services which allowed our service providers to service more students without having to bring on new staff. And it also gives those kids an opportunity to work on those skills in a more natural setting and with their peers and generalize those skills. Then the last piece we really focused on not so much technology, but making sure you're maximizing things like monies that are out there through state and federal agencies, like Medicaid reimbursement. That's something I really go after, those Medicaid reimbursement dollars, because they are significant because they come back to the district. Although it doesn't come back directly to the Special Education Department, it comes back to the district.
• 15:22
  And again, that offsets costs year after year. Another thing I've done is it goes back to what I said about we're fortunate here to have a full continuum of programs on the East End. We do a lot of building relationships with neighboring districts. So we have a couple districts a little further east of us. They don't have full districts.
• 15:41
  They end after ninth grade or after eighth grade, and those students need to select a district to come to. We've positioned ourselves in a spot where we are the attractive district for the special education students to come. So they cross contract here. And again, we're happy to have those kids and we're happy to be able to provide those services because otherwise those students would probably have to go to BOCES. It's still a great place, but it's not a home school district.
• 16:04
  So now they're able to come here. And so it's two fold. We're able to keep those kids in local school districts and provide them with quality programs. And it also acts as a revenue source for the district.
• 16:15
  Matt Giovanniello: That's incredibly clever. Really grateful that you shared a number of those examples because I think other school districts, both in New York, but also across the country, as they listen to your examples here, can say, Oh, that's interesting. It's a little bit of a unique approach or posture or standpoint. It's one that we might be able to do also, whether it's bringing in students from neighboring districts to bolster your own internal special education offerings while offsetting the expenses that come with it or thinking about ways to just you know, we've been doing the same thing the same way for forty, fifty years. There's actually a way to just, you know, with not a ton of work and not a ton of headwinds, let's digitize this and we'll save countless money.
• 16:51
  And at the same time, make that data more accessible to everybody because it's now in our computers and no one needs to be transcribing information, whatever that might be. I feel like
• 17:00
  Benjamin Franquiz: the collaboration portal has been a blessing. It was there. It was kind of hanging out in the background for a couple of years, and I don't know how we discovered it. It might've been you, Mr. Petrenko.
• 17:08
  I'm not sure how we discovered it. But once we initiated it, I was a little hesitant about pushback, but we've got, you know, almost, 500 special education students here, and I think there's maybe maybe 10 families that have requested to continue to get paper. It's just it's quick. They need a document signed. We can have it over to them in seconds, and they could sign it and send it back to us.
• 17:31
  If they were on the phone with us and we did this, it could you you talk about something that could happen in less than two minutes, where traditionally that might have taken weeks to get that paper back. And, again, sounds like something small and and minor, but in the end, it's a benefit for the student because if it's an amendment to the document or starting a service, that can start that day instead of a week from now.
• 17:50
  Matt Giovanniello: Right. Exactly. And you're able to move more effectively through updating all these documents instead of having parents come in for a meeting and to go over everything. It's just everything's more efficient along the way. I'm really glad you're embracing that approach and your families are too, because that's a key part of this partnership.
• 18:04
  Ben, I want to go back to something you brought up before. BOCES is unique to New York State, as you know. For those listening that aren't as familiar with the BOCES model, tell us a little bit about how your district in particular interfaces with BOCES, makes use of BOCES services, or sends students out to BOCES on an as needed basis, and how that helps deliver more effective within the district for special education.
• 18:24
  Benjamin Franquiz: Sure. Interfaces with the district on many facets, but what I'll talk about is just programming. There comes a point in time where we've exhausted the resources that we have available in districts for students who have more significant needs. So BOCES provides a large array of programs that students can go to. And actually, going turn this over to Ms.
• 18:44
  Petrenko because she deals with all our out of district students, she would really be able to talk about BOCES and how they help us out.
• 18:51
  Kathleen Petrenko: Yeah, so we have students who, despite our best efforts, were unable to educate due to the severity or the increasing needs that they have. Thankfully we have BOCES and they have a large amount of different types of programs based on students significant needs that a student can be placed in. Unfortunately, we just started seeing an increase in the need for placements at BOCES, not just here at ESM, but across Long Island. And so I think it was the first time I ever came across this year a situation where both these did not have an open seat for a student that was in need need. Wow.
• 19:29
  Yeah. So it's a bit of a struggle, but they are continuing to grow and we are continuing to adapt to the increasing needs, significant needs of students in our district. So when we do send a child to BOCES, we are so incredibly grateful for the level of support that they can provide, the amount of professional development that they provide to their staff and teachers. So that we know when our students do go to BOCES that they're being provided with specialized care and also completely professional and they seriously work towards helping that child to develop and eventually hopefully have the opportunity for the student to participate in the least restrictive environment LRE, right? Including sometimes having children come back to their public school eventually.
• 20:17
  So we are so grateful for all the supports that BOCES gives in, but unfortunately, we are not the only district that relies on BOCES to provide for our most significant special needs students. And so, you know, we continue to work with BOCES, work closely with them and adapt to the needs so that we're ensuring that all of our students are being provided with that education that they need. The types of programs that we're sending our children to, we have students that are currently attending BOCES programs for medically fragile students. And then in another location, we have students going to a, it's called the BOCES school, but it's all for students with special needs, but they're working towards high school diploma, working on the same standards as the students that are in our high school. So it goes from the full continuum, full range, those many different programs that they have.
• 21:06
  Benjamin Franquiz: We also can partner with BOCES to have students participate in vocational opportunities, which is really important and a great pathway for not only special education students, but all students with the vocational opportunities that are out there.
• 21:20
  Matt Giovanniello: I'm glad you're bringing that up too. College is not necessarily the most appropriate path post high school for everybody. And especially when we think about our friends in special education, they need options. Knowing that vocational programming and training is available via BOCES, that important layer, is huge for your students graduating from ESM. Kathleen, back to a point that you made before about this BOCES layer because it's such a novel concept.
• 21:42
  We love it. Some may take it for granted within New York State, but a lot of other states don't even have it. And so the fact that you're able to rely on this important layer to service the continuum of needs of your students is I think a key piece here that I just want to make sure that nuance doesn't get lost for others in nearby states that are like, How do they do it? It's like, you're doing everything you can in house, but where that becomes too much, there's this additional component that BOCES is able to help serve. So, I'm glad you called that out.
• 22:05
  I'd like to change gears a little bit and talk about data, our favorite word within special education. There's data galore, whether it's from the IEP in a platform like IEP Direct, or thinking about data from observational nodes, related services, progress monitoring, data you're getting during these IEP meetings. Talk to us a little bit about how your district's posture on data and how you think about data maybe changed over the past couple of years, and hopefully how you're using some of these AI pieces to try and collect data in a way that hopefully is more efficient than times past is required of these giant filing cabinets and Manila file folders and all of the data collection requirements of yesteryear. What does data look like for you right now at the district and how is that continuing to change?
• 22:43
  Benjamin Franquiz: That's always been a monster to tackle for the teachers because their caseload is, you know, there's a lot of kids, especially at the high school. You got teachers that are responsible for potentially 100 students. And even if every student had two goals, there's 200 goals you need to monitor. It's a monster. So one of the things that we really focused on as a department is the first thing is really streamlining goals and sticking to one to two goals at a time per area.
• 23:12
  I've seen IEPs with kids that come in from other districts and there's like 26 goals. And I'm like, this is just impossible to manage. And also, in my perspective, not realistic. You're focusing on too many things. So the first thing is to streamline and get those.
• 23:28
  What are the most important things? And just because you've narrowed it down to one or two goals, that doesn't mean we're not teaching curriculum or teaching other things. These are the goals, the major deficits that we're trying to close the gaps. And so let's focus on those goals. From there, making sure that it's written properly where it's measurable.
• 23:45
  And we still to this day find goals that we have to go back and say, all right, you know, everybody's got best intentions when they're writing them, but sometimes they just don't realize that until you go to collect the data on it. This really isn't measurable the way it's written. So when we find that we make that correction, and then providing teachers with tools to collect that data. We have a, you know, one of the things I had created for the department is, simple Google spreadsheet, but you know, it automatically it's made for them already. So all they have to do is go back and type in dates and and it's very easy to type in the date and also drop downs, whether they're collecting percentages or trials or, you know, raw scores, whatever they're looking at, and then it automatically graphs it.
• 24:26
  So when they put it in the table, the graph pops up automatically. I think graphs are good for parents because looking at all these numbers, it makes it very difficult for them to even see like, what is the trajectory of this? Is a student making progress? Are they flat lining? Are they going backwards?
• 24:38
  So we encourage teachers to use that. You know, I'm hoping that, there are AI tools that come down the road that make this even easier. And that's something that we're, we are constantly, I don't say it's a battle. It's, it's something that it's, it's not easy for teachers. It's still something that, it's, it's just a monster to collect the data and the parents are entitled to it and they want it.
• 24:58
  And we are required to keep it and it needs to be accurate. We we try to make some tools and create them there that teachers have. And then again, if if things come along down the down the pike that that can make that job easier, we would we would look those options as well.
• 25:12
  Matt Giovanniello: I love that example because I think you're facing the reality that data collection is becoming more complicated, especially when you inherit an IEP of a student from out of district. Per your example, that you have 26 goals, okay, you're setting yourself up for failure, number one, you have 26 goals, to your point. And number two, no matter how many goals there are, the expectation of regular and routine data collection is only growing in importance and and the expectation of parents, like, we can't sit in our hands and be like, it's too hard. We're not gonna do it. Like, that's not an option.
• 25:39
  So how in the world of this digital data collection can we make that possible? I think your spreadsheet's a really important step in the way there. We often talk with a lot of school and district leaders who are like, we still let teachers do however they want, and that old guard ends up being paper based data collection, which at least it's happening on the bright side. But the negative to that is it's incredibly time intensive. When you have as large a caseloads as your staff do, it's just something is going to give.
• 26:02
  So I'm glad that you're making those efforts and you're looking to make additional investments into decreasing the amount of time on that non instructional, more admin related work, because then they get to put it back into pouring time and attention to their students. That's, I think, the end goal for all of us. I'd like to go into one more topic, then we'll wrap up our conversation for today. My final question has to do with partnerships between schools and families and the way that you're building more of that partnership. Right?
• 26:27
  So whether it has to do with IEPs or has to do with sharing that data on a routine basis, I imagine more constant communication, your communication portal was a great example of that, yields stronger partnerships between your families at home and all of the amazing work that you're doing during the school day now that it's known. So what other pieces of the puzzle do you think is important that either you've gotten right or you're still working to get even better on as it relates to that partnership between families and schools?
• 26:49
  Benjamin Franquiz: I think family partnerships are key if we're going to have success with students. There really needs to be synergy between the parents and the school district and a trust. The best thing to do is have open, honest communication. I try to be available to parents whenever they need me. I you know, whenever I make, I talk to a parent, I'll let them know you can call me anytime, send me an email.
• 27:10
  So I try to have FaceTime with the community out at events. I'm attending a junior senior high school play tonight. So I try to make myself available to the community. And if they wanna have a conversation, they they're welcome to, and encourage them to call their teachers, call their their buildings, speak with the teachers, speak with the staff. We encourage teachers through our department meetings.
• 27:31
  We're constantly talking about them to reach out to parents, good, bad, or ugly, early and often. Talk to parents, keep them in the loop as to what's going on. You have to have trust and you have to be honest. Sometimes those conversations are difficult. And, you know, special education is very tough.
• 27:47
  It's very emotional. There can be very raw emotions with parents. We work with a wonderful group of professionals here. I do think that every single person in this district that's that I'm involved with in special education has the best interest of students at heart, but you really gotta be willing to work with parents. We've got great chair people, who, they've been doing this for years.
• 28:06
  They're they're very creative with coming up with solutions and finding ways to, to make trials be flexible, and just let parents know like, Hey, we'll, we'll, we're willing, first off the, the CSE really has your child's best interests at heart, but also, you know, we're willing to work with you and try things to to make sure that you know that we're doing everything we can to help service your student and and our recommendations are coming from, a good place.
• 28:31
  Kathleen Petrenko: And also, I can add to that, Ben, having I think that have been like having that continuity with the same chair people not having that turnover. We've had the same elementary chairperson for twenty years. So Rob Koenig has, you know, seen children right from three years old all the way through to junior high school where our next CSE chairperson Superito takes over and she sees them through to graduation. So I think families having that consistency is so important because you develop that relationship. You know, it takes time and I think the other thing is, you know, reach like I think that connecting with families has to happen not just professionally, but also outside.
• 29:13
  It's about going going to those events, seeing families on the outside, being interested in the student outside of the student on a piece
• 29:20
  Kathleen Petrenko: of paper, right? We have a wonderful Septo group and we're meeting it every other month and talk about different topics and we bounce ideas off each other. Support each other. They help us with events like when we participate in athletes for all events, they're out there. And so I think having a good relationship with Septo is really important.
• 29:41
  Know, just connecting with families outside of this SE and this conversation just surrounding education. We recently started sending out surveys to parents after CSE meetings. How how are we doing? And you know, it's
• 29:55
  Kathleen Petrenko: not like how are we doing?
• 29:57
  Kathleen Petrenko: It's like tell us the truth. How are we doing?
• 29:59
  Kathleen Petrenko: Because we really want to know it's the only way we're going to improve, right? So to be open and accepting to criticism and things that we can do to improve, I think is also a good way to build relationships. Another thing that we do is we send out a special Ed newsletter quarterly newsletter highlighting the our families with our children highlighting our children successes different activities. They're engaging in boards that they're receiving different things that our teachers are doing, you know, highlighting how proud we are, how proud we are to be part of this community, how proud we are of the work that we do and the children.
• 30:36
  Matt Giovanniello: That's awesome. I love those examples. How proud you should be indeed. And it's amazing to think about how much you're pouring in resource wise and love wise and education wise into these students and to see what successes those yield. Especially, I think, to each of your points, when you have CSE chair people and administrators like yourselves seeing students through to fruition, it's amazing to see what special education could do to those students with the right time and attention and appropriate services.
• 31:02
  So I'm just glad you get to see that all the way through. It must be very invigorating and very rewarding to know that the work that you're doing is making a difference.
• 31:10
  Benjamin Franquiz: ESM's a great community and it's a great place to work.
• 31:14
  Matt Giovanniello: I love that. I can feel it. I feel it through all of your examples. I could tell that you really enjoy your work in your district. I appreciate it.
• 31:21
  We are at the end of our time, which is so crazy for me to think. I have one more question for the both of you that I'm going to pose. It is a little bit related to what we were just talking about, but you love your community, you love your staff, you love your students, of course. Now let's reframe that thought into a slightly different question. Ben, I'll start with you.
• 31:39
  What does being an exceptional educator or being an exceptional leader mean to you?
• 31:43
  Benjamin Franquiz: I think you're put in a role where you need to inspire people to want to be great. And I tell new hires is it's a that's such an important piece of our job is is a new hiring and the onboarding of new staff. And I tell them all the time, it's a grueling process to become a teacher on Long Island. The interview process is insane. It's it's very difficult.
• 32:05
  And I tell these people all the time and I see them that you, you know, are the best of the best that we saw, and we saw greatness in you. And I I flat out tell them that we did not hire you to be good. We hired you to be great, and that's what we expect. And you wanna just provide the teachers with the tools. My job is to make their job as easy as possible and remove obstacles.
• 32:26
  So that's what I try to do every day. I work with a great staff, a great group of people in the administration, a great group of people who are teachers, a great group of support staff and the clericals and the tech people and cafeteria workers. Everybody we work with, custodians, they are I have not met a person in this district that hasn't been student centered and student focused and and just a nice person. So, you know, my job is just to take the obstacles out of the way and let the teachers do what they're
• 32:51
  Matt Giovanniello: That speaks volumes because that starts from the top with you two. Kathleen, what does being an exceptional educator or being an exceptional leader mean to you?
• 32:58
  Kathleen Petrenko: Well, I agree with everything that Ben said. I'll just add to that and say that I think an exceptional educator would be somebody who comes in every day and is just focused on the reason we're here. We're here for the kids. We're here for the students and if you can stay student centered if your decisions are if your decisions are sound and around how are we going to make education better for this student today? Did I did I do something to help one of these students be a better student tomorrow?
• 33:28
  Then I thank you. I think that's what my goal is and that's what all educators goals should be. We have a motto here at ESM every student matters And so that's how I like to come in every day, and that's what I think about. That's what I try to project out to our clerical staff and to our faculty and staff. You know, every student does matter.
• 33:47
  And if you can do that every day, then I think, you know, it's worth waking up in the morning and coming
• 33:52
  Matt Giovanniello: to I love that. Esm at esm. ESM squared. I dig it. That's a very witty motto, and it feels like one that you're living and breathing, and I think it emanates throughout your staff as well.
• 34:03
  You sound so proud of them, and it's amazing to know the work that they're doing in support of all your exceptional students. Kathleen and Ben, you are both exceptional. You are inspiring the exceptional staff at your districts and cultivating the next generation of our exceptional students. So thank you for your work. Thank you for committing yourself to this space.
• 34:17
  Thank you for coming onto this podcast and being vulnerable with me and answering some questions. For all of us listening to today's episode of the Exceptional Educators Podcast, thank you for joining me today, and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.