NEALS Announces New Board Members

Northeast Association of Learning Specialists
Executive Board
2007-2009

Rebecca Plona Peterson, President
Rebecca has been a member of NEALS since 2003, previously serving as Program Director. She is currently the Director of the Learning Center at Stoneleigh-Burnham School. Rebecca provides leadership and general oversight for NEALS, and can be reached at 413-774-2711 or rpeterson@sbschool.org

Gretchen Larkin, Program Director
Gretchen is a newcomer to NEALS, and brings great energy to her job as Program Director. A longtime special educator, she currently works as a reading specialist at Fay School. Gretchen supervises programming for members and takes the primary role in conference planning; she can be reached at glarkin@fayschool.org or 508-485-0100.

Marcia Ramunni, Secretary/Treasurer
Marcia is currently serving her second term on the Executive Board, having spent the previous two years sharing her substantial job with Marcia King of Hebron Academy. Marcia is a learning specialist at Salisbury School; her role on the Executive Board is to keep records of meetings and maintain the organization’s finances. Marcia’s e-mail address is mramunni@salisburyschool.org and her phone number is 860-435-5700.

Lee Hughes, Membership Director
Lee directs the Academic Skills Center at Gould Academy and has been a member of NEALS for several years. Her primary responsibility on the Executive Board is to maintain accurate accounting of members. Please contact Lee at lee.hughes@gouldacademy.org or 207-824-7700 with any questions about your membership status, or changes to your contact information or school affiliation.

Denise Elliott, Public Relations Director
Denise is also new to NEALS and the Executive Board; she joins us from Pike School where she serves as the Director of Learning Services. Denise spearheads communication with members and the larger independent school community; please contact her at delliott@pikeschool.org or 978-475-1197.

Kara Ashley, Director of Special Projects
Kara is one of the founding members of NEALS; she served as the organization’s first Program Director and has recently completed a two-year term as President. She directs the Learning Center at Fay School. Kara currently maintains our online community, located at www.learningspecialists.blogspot.com and continues to work on a comprehensive study of the role of learning specialists in independent schools. Kara can be contacted at kashley@fayschool.org or 508-485-0100.

A letter from our President

Dear Colleagues,

I hope that this letter finds you well, that everyone has had a restful and relaxing summer, and that your school years are all off to a terrific start.

I am enormously excited to be starting my two-year term as the President of NEALS, inheriting a strong and vibrant organization from Kara Ashley of Fay School. Joining me on the executive board are five experienced professionals who bring to us a wealth of expertise from their years in primary, middle, and secondary schools; elsewhere in this mailing you’ll find a listing of board members, their roles, and their contact information.

This fall mailing will serve several purposes. First, we’ve included the fall membership renewal forms. NEALS memberships are individual and run for one academic year regardless of the date membership commenced; anyone who renews their membership this fall will be in good standing for the 2007-8 academic year. If you have a colleague or colleagues who would also like to join NEALS, please feel free to copy the enclosed membership forms and pass them along.

Membership fees for the 2007-8 academic year are $50 for full members, and $75 for adjunct members. A full member is any employee of an independent school who provides or oversees academic support services (learning specialist, academic dean, tutor, director of studies, etc). An adjunct member is an individual who works with students with learning disabilities outside of the independent school setting. Educational consultants, psychologists, independent reading specialists or other independent service providers would be examples of adjunct members.

Second, as our membership continues to grow, we’ve decided this year to begin an official directory of NEALS membership. Listing in the directory is strictly voluntary – if you’d prefer not to be listed, please indicate that on your membership form – and directories will only be available to NEALS members. This directory will allow increased communication between members outside of conferences, and we hope that this will help you to keep conversations with colleagues going in the months between meetings! To assist us in generating the directory for the fall conference, please return membership materials to Marcia Ramunni by October 20th.

Lastly, registration materials for our fall conference are included. On October 30th, we’ll be traveling to western Massachusetts to Northfield-Mount Hermon School for “How Do You Handle It?” My favorite part of any NEALS meeting is the chance to strategize with colleagues about best practices in serving our students; this fall, participants will be meeting in small groups to work with the profile of a sample student and to learn new techniques from one another. This format for our fall meeting should be a wonderful chance for us to spend time talking with and learning from our colleagues.

Best wishes to all, and we hope to see you at the end of the month!

Rebecca Plona Peterson
President, Northeast Association of Learning Specialists