May 2-6 is Licensed Employee Appreciation Week at Northwest Regional Education Service District. Our organization, which serves a four-county region of northwest Oregon, employs more than 325 licensed staff. 

In addition to special education teachers, Northwest Regional Education Service District’s team of licensed staff also include health professionals and others with specialized, technical training. 

Positions include assistive technology and augmentative communication specialists, autism spectrum disorder specialists and consultants, behavior and mental health specialists, early childhood and K-12 special education teachers, instructional coaches, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, teachers of the blind and visually impaired, teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing, teachers on special assignment and others. 

These teachers and specialists cumulatively work with thousands of students and their families every school year. At its April 12 board meeting, the NWRESD Board of Directors proclaimed May 2-6 Licensed Appreciation Week. 

Part of this proclamation read: “The NWRESD Board of Directors strongly encourages all members of our community to join in personally expressing appreciation to our teachers for their dedication and devotion to their work.”

“As an education service district, we work with students who have complex and challenging medical, behavioral and mental health needs,” says Dan Goldman, superintendent of NWRESD. “During the past few pandemic years, our licensed educators have found so many creative ways to meet the ballooning demand for care and connection.”

Meet a few of our licensed colleagues and learn about the work they do to support children, families and educators. Many thanks to our staff who contributed to these stories. 

Amber Carini - Speech-Language Pathologist, Early Learning

Amber Carini

Amber Carini and the rest of the Early Intervention team based at the Tualatin Early Childhood Center are currently supporting an immigrant family from Mexico. Amber spends hours collaborating with partner  agencies to ensure the single mother, who is deaf, is kept well-informed and actively involved in decision-making about the services she and her family receive from Northwest Regional Education Service District. 

This mother’s educational opportunities were limited in Mexico, so she primarily uses pictures and gestures to communicate. Amber and these community partners, which include Lifeworks Northwest - Healthy Families, Linguava and Passport to Languages, have taken the time to devise a picture system so they can communicate with one another. Along with these pictures, they’ve also learned her gestures and taught her some of theirs while she learns American Sign Language. 

Despite the challenges, Amber has found a way to provide this mother with the skills she needs to coach her child. Thanks to Amber's dedication and persistence, this family is able to receive the services they need as the mom learns ASL. 

“Amber has shown the family great care and concern,” says Peggy Freund, who coordinates Early Intervention staff at NWRESD. “Each visit takes hours of careful planning, great creativity and extra perseverance. Her commitment to this family is inspiring.”

Monica Clark - Physical Therapist, Special Student Services

Monica Clark

Monica Clark is a physical therapist who works primarily with school-age children who have mobility challenges such as paralysis, unsteady gait, poor muscle control or the loss of a limb. Many of the children Monica works with need adaptive equipment such as a wheelchair, stander, walker or gait trainer, which is similar to a walker but provides additional support, to participate in school. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Monica collaborated with a team of educators from across Oregon to develop a decision-making framework and guidance that physical therapists and others in the field could use when providing services to students with orthopedic impairments while also protecting them and their service providers from the threat of COVID-19. 

“This work was especially crucial at the beginning of the pandemic because physical therapists require close physical proximity to students, many of whom are medically fragile and cannot wear masks themselves,” says Jessica Duffett, who coordinates occupational and physical therapists and nurses at NWRESD. “This work contributed to open, safe schools for children in our region and across the state.” 

These papers are titled: “Ensuring Safety and Equity for Students who Experience Complex Medical Needs” and “Determining PPE for Employees Assisting Students Who Require Close Proximity.” They are posted on the Regional & Statewide Services for Students with Orthopedic Impairments website. Monica and her team of collaborators also presented this information at a webinar sponsored by Regional and Statewide Services for Students with Orthopedic Impairment on Sept. 29, 2021. 

Keri Esser - Physical Therapist, Shannon Hamerman - Occupational Therapist and Lindsey Wineland - Speech-Language Pathologist, Early Learning

Keri Esser, a physical therapist, Shannon Hamerman, an occupational therapist, and Lindsey Wineland, a speech-language pathologist, have collaborated to help a preschooler stay at her community preschool this year. The child experiences Down Syndrome and needs extra support. The team feared the preschool staff were going to ask for her to be removed from the classroom, but through this team’s problem-solving and support, the preschool staff now feel confident they can support her. 

Keri provided a specialized chair for the child to use during circle time. When she sits in it, she feels comfortable and supported. Shannon brought in a peanut ball the child can use when she needs to take a break. The other students have learned that this toy is only for her, and they have learned how to interact with her while she uses it. 

This child continues to benefit from going to preschool with friends who do not experience a disability, and the friends have also learned a lot from having this student in their class, says Scott Ryan, the principal at the Beaverton Early Childhood Center. 

“It has been a real team effort with all three staff committed to supporting this child and helping to give her a supportive preschool experience with her peers,” he says. 

Gayle Hernandez - Physical Therapist, Early Learning

Gayle Hernandez

Gayle Hernandez is a physical therapist who works with children who are receiving Early Intervention or Early Childhood Special Education services. This year, Gayle created a resource called Movin’ and Groovin’ for Fun. This resource provides fun movement ideas for teachers and families to do with young children. Each letter of the alphabet has related activities such as yoga poses or breaths, movement ideas and ways to form the letter with your body.

For example, the letter D teaches kids how to:

• Do the dinosaur stomp: Bend forward, grab your knees and walk forward with your hands on your knees. Stomp, stomp, stomp. 
• Do the duck walk: Put your hands on your hips, squat down and walk forward.  
• Freestyle dance: Put on your favorite music, wave your arms, move your feet and dance.

The activities offer a great way for kinesthetic learners—those who learn by doing—to make new pathways in their brains for early literacy and reading skills.

The information is available in English and Spanish and includes modifications. 

• Download A-Z Movin’ and Groovin’ for Fun in English.
• Download A-Z Movin’ and Groovin’ for Fun in Spanish.

Brandon Zuel - Speech-Language Pathologist, Early Learning

Brandon Zuel, a speech-language pathologist who works with the Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education team, recently graduated and joined NWRESD this school year. He works with a diverse group of students who have speech needs because of medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism or genetic conditions.

Part of his work involves establishing relationships with medical providers so the services children receive from their health care providers and educators are more coordinated. 

When one of Brandon’s students needs a device to communicate, Brandon will reach out to the medical staff at hospitals or clinics such as Shriners Children’s Hospital and then collaborate with NWRESD therapists to formulate a plan for helping the child use the device. The process involves understanding how each device operates and how it can be integrated into the child’s daily routines. For example, for a child who uses a walker, Brandon and the team will help the family formulate a plan for attaching the device to the walker so that it can move with the child throughout the day. 

“Brandon is innovative and thinks creatively about how to support children and their families,” says Heather Botcheos, principal at the Tualatin Early Childhood Center. “He also takes the time to celebrate successes with our preschool teams in order to build a strong relationship with the people in the community working with our students.”

This week, every NWRESD licensed staff member will receive a wellness kit with tea, an energy bar, a face mask, a Kinder Joy and a note of appreciation.