Laurel Peltier, Ed.D. is a Curriculum and Instruction Specialist in Special Education at the Collaborative for Educational Services. Her work focuses on special education leaders and leadership, and particularly on facilitating the IEP team process with people inside of schools and in community settings who support kids who have disabilities. We recently asked Laurel whether at this time, the role of special education team leader is more important than ever. She responded, “Special education funding has been an issue for as long as I have been in the field of education, and while...

CES Newsroom
Education News and Updates from the Collaborative for Educational Services

All Articles

CES Stories

Local News

State/National News
Northampton students build computers in new digital literacy program
NORTHAMPTON — On Friday morning, R.K. Finn Ryan Road School third-grade students were playing Minecraft on small computers. But they weren’t using an average laptop — they were computers the students had built themselves. As part of a new technology education...
Art Inspires at HEC Academy
At this year’s HEC Academy graduation in June, guests were treated to a striking piece of art on the graduation program cover. Entitled Social Justice and Identity, and the culmination of a year’s work, the mural represented a project that the HEC Academy community...
Barbara Cheney Appointed Fellow for Summit Learning
Barbara Cheney, Lead Teacher at Mount Tom Academy, smiles as she thinks about last June’s graduation ceremonies for Mount Tom students, where seven seniors received certificates from Mount Tom to accompany diplomas from their sending schools. Prior to the...
State Legislators and School District Superintendents Gather to Discuss School Funding
NORTHAMPTON - The Collaborative for Educational Services (CES) hosted nine state legislators and aides, and twenty School Superintendents from Franklin and Hampshire counties on Friday morning, February 15th at their offices at 97 Hawley Street in Northampton....
Students to ask state for more education funds
Students and educators from seven Pioneer Valley school districts are going to Boston on Feb. 28 to ask state lawmakers to increase funding for rural schools. The students were supposed to go this week, but the trip was postponed due to inclement weather. The group...
Students Gain Experience Via New CES Internship Program
Thirty area high school students found spring and summer employment through a newly opened summer internship program this past year. Developed by CES’s Matt Rigney, Alternative Youth Programs Director, and funded by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and...
Continuing Earl McGraw’s Legacy in Turners Falls
TURNERS FALLS — Joining the Turners Falls High School student recipient senior Andy Craver, Jessica Vachula-Curtis is this year’s staff recipient of the McGraw Uplift Award. Like Craver, English and special education teacher, Vachula-Curtis was nominated more than...
Andy Craver follows Vice principal’s uplifting example in Turners Falls
Assistant principals, of necessity, are often the high school disciplinarians, which doesn’t exactly endear them to their students. So the late Earl McGraw, the former Turners Falls High School assistant principal, must have been an exceptional person. After he...
Gill-Montague to talk, hold forums on racial issues
TURNERS FALLS — Besides the plan to hold upcoming forums, Superintendent Michael Sullivan said Gill-Montague district schools are addressing civil rights harassment violations by implementing several improvements, including teaching divserity and...
Belchertown School Chief to Retire
BELCHERTOWN — Belchertown Public Schools Superintendent Karol Coffin plans to retire from the district after this school year, effective June 30. Coffin submitted a letter of intent to retire on Jan. 14 and notified district employees by the following afternoon,...
Subscribe To Our Blog
Enter your email address to receive notifications of new published posts.