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Remarks from OSPA Awards Committee Co-Chair Melissa Bestgen

Juliette Madigan began her career in in 1989, after graduating from John Carroll University. She worked briefly for PSI Solutions before finding her home in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where she worked from 1992 to her retirement in 2015. Juliette conducted evaluations, assisted with writing IEPs, supported teachers in intervention and progress monitoring, provided group and individual crisis counseling, and supervised practicum and intern students.

She then worked as co-coordinator for the CMSD Crisis/Rapid Response Desk, helping to coordinate crisis supports across the district and building the response into a comprehensive, multidisciplinary effort. Outside of her responsibilities within the district, Juliette has been a member of many professional organizations: Cleveland Association of School Psychologists, OSPA, NASP, ISPA, APA Division 16, the Council for Exceptional Children, and the National Association of Masters in Psychology. She has served as president of CASP and OSPA, delegate to NASP, and trustee and treasurer of NASP’s Children’s Fund. In her retirement, Juliette has continued to serve the profession as a CASP representative to OSPA and NASP PREPaRE trainer. For her dedication to the profession, the OSPA Executive Board is honored to present Juliette Madigan with the 2017 R.A.Horn Honorary Life Membership Award.

Remarks from Juliette Madigan

I am pleased, honored and humbled to accept the Ray Horn Lifetime Achievement Award and to join past recipients who I have long admired and respected. A very special thanks to Laura Gabel for nominating me and to Melissa Bestgen and the Awards Committee for this honor, to Karen Stine and Ann Brennan. Thanks too to Bill Stencil who came down from Cleveland Schools today to join us and to my husband Tom who came down to have lunch with us as well. A special shout out to my CASP buddies for being here today.

 Most especially, thanks to OSPA who has given me years of opportunities to be part of the leadership of this organization. Thank you also to you my fellow OSPA members for being here today. Look around at all who are in this room. You are the active members of this organization. You are the ones who will help guide this profession into the future. I invite you to take a step this afternoon to become more active in OSPA. After the wine and cheese the OSPA committees will be meeting in this room. Take the time to join one of the committees and see where your talents fit.

Remember OSPA is the only organization in the state that specifically watches over our needs and speaks to our specific role in helping children succeed psychologically, behaviorally, socially as well as educationally.

Congratulations to Sharon Rieke on receiving the Bartlett Distinguished Service Award and to Keith Mesmer on receiving the Best Practice Award. I feel privileged to be a member of this organization. Thank you.

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Remarks from OSPA Awards Committee Co-Chair Melissa Bestgen

Our final recipient is Sharon Rieke, who is receiving the Clyde V. Bartlett Distinguished Service Award.

Sharon Rieke has been a noted Ohio school psychologist for decades, impacting the lives of countless students and colleagues. Sharon has worked as a tireless advocate for the students in her buildings, providing trainings for staff, advice to parents, and evidence based supports to students. She was an early champion on positive behavior supports in schools, assuming the character of Shirley Holmes, Detective of Good Behavior. She ensured that the students in her setting for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities had an opportunity to participate in an annual talent show, which has
continued for 25 years. She has provided unparalleled training to many school psychology practicum and intern students through her professor position at the University of Cincinnati and as a field supervisor,
many of whom have moved on to become leaders in the field.

Outside of her school based endeavors, Sharon has served in numerous professional associations, including acting as President, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor, and OSPA Representative for SWOSPA; President, Legislative and Membership Committee Co-Chair, and member of the Fiscal Advisory Committee, Planning and Development Committee, and task force to develop an evaluation rubric for school psychologists. For her dedication to the profession, the OSPA Executive Board is honored to present Sharon Rieke with the 2017 Clyde V. Bartlett Distinguished Service Award.

Remarks from Sharon Rieke

I want to thank Dr. Michael Forcade, OSPA Fall Conference Co-Chair, for nominating me; SWOSPA Rep Lynn Brumfield and OSPA President Dr. Karen Stine for writing letters of recommendation, the Awards
Committee and the Executive Board for considering me for this award.

I want to share some mottos I’ve lived by in my professional life:

1. “First, do no harm” – (Hippocratic Oath) Back at the turn of the century in 2000, it was my motto during my OSPA presidency. “Do no harm” meant don’t mess anything up!
2. “Seek first to understand” – (Steven Covey, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’) To understand, we need to listen first. We need to listen to the parents, teachers and students to hear their concerns. We can’t be good at problem solving if we don’t understand the issues.
3. “Be the change you want to see in the world” – (Gandhi) There were many times I could not sit by and let others dictate what our profession should look like. I determined what I wanted my role and function to be. I made changes to how we operated as a school psychology profession in my little corner of the world, and then took that same determination to my supervision role with the school psychologists at the Hamilton County ESC. I would stick my neck out to defend our practices and to respectfully refuse to let our psychologists get railroaded on the job by an administrator in a district who wanted to cut corners. I tried to live my vision of what I wanted my profession to be.
4. “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar” – (English Proverb which first appeared in the US in Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac) This means it’s easier to persuade others with polite requests and a positive attitude, rather than negativity. When trying to bring about systems change, I learned early on that building a positive relationship with teachers helped immensely when asking them to
   change something in their classrooms or try out an intervention.
5. “Bite the Bullet” - (Rudyard Kipling or any old westerns where the cowboy is having surgery) This means to endure a painful or otherwise unpleasant situation; or to accept something difficult and try to make the best of it. When talking with our school psych supervisees about the school district they were in, they would tell me about their frustrations of bringing about change for children. I would frequently ask if they liked their job and their placement, and if they had the stamina to stick it out, “bite the bullet” for at least 3 years to see if they could make a difference. To do this, they needed to have a very strong vision for what they wanted their profession to look like.
6. “There’s the law, best practice and common sense” – (Sharon Rieke) One of my latest mottos means:
   • There is a law for special education, follow it!
   • We have many volumes of Best Practices, which are research-based, and these should be our “goto” for solutions. When the law does not specifically address an area of our practice, use the best practices in our field.

What have I given to our profession? 

• My love of our field
• Never giving in to other’s views of what we, as school psychologists, should be and should do
• Advocating for what is best for children
• Promoting best practices with students, interns, and the school psychology staff, I worked with and supervised, for over 20 years
• Collaborating with others to forward OSPA’s agenda for promoting quality school psychology in our state by serving on the Executive Board for 18 yrs.
• Supporting and promoting our profession with OSPA for 40 years 
• I won’t mention all the bottles of wine I have opened and poured!

 I am humbled and honored to receive the Clyde V. Bartlett Distinguished Service Award. Thank you.

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Remarks from OSPA Awards Committee Co-Chair Melissa Bestgen

We are here today to honor Keith Mesmer, who is receiving the 2017 F. Peter Gross Best Practices Award.

Keith Mesmer graduated from John Carroll University in 2004. He was hired into Nordonia Hills City Schools, where he has  become an integral member of his school and professional community. He is being recognized today for his exemplary professional practice in implementing an effective Response to Intervention program within Nordonia Hills schools. 

Keith has provided professional development in regulations regarding RTI, the purpose of and evidence for RTI, using intervention resources, interpreting Aimsweb data, and interventions for behaviorally challenging students. In addition to staffwide training, Keith provides team and individual teacher assistance in developing and monitoring interventions for students.

He also supports school staff as a member of the district’s emergency management team and curriculum advisory council, elementary building leadership team, and district all-day kindergarten task force. He also supports school staff as a member of the district’s emergency management team and curriculum advisory council, elementary building leadership team, and district all-day kindergarten task force.

Remarks from Keith Mesmer

It was about three weeks ago, when I found myself in the principal’s office with a student who had been presenting with some behavioral challenges. At the same time, I was also supposed to be at the first of many meetings that day. It was spring after all, and everything was an emergency. The day was just shaping up to be a disaster; and at the crescendo of all of this commotion, I received a text. It was from my Pupil Service Director. The message was that she needed to see me at central office tomorrow morning. And as I looked at that text, completely overwhelmed, and pulled in so many different directions, I thought to myself, “Well, this isn’t this nice?” There were a few things that went through my mind: “Did I drop the ball on a procedural issue? Did someone file due process?” In a word, I was catastrophizing.

Now, a few weeks prior to my summons to central office, due the kindness of a wonderful colleague and friend, I knew that I was nominated for the Pete Gross Best Practice Award. The timing of this summons to central office and the decision timeline about the award being made possibly revealed to me, did match up. But, you see some of you who know me a little, know that my home town is Buffalo, NY. Buffalo is not generally considered to be east coast elite city. But, some of the nicest, most humble people come from Buffalo.

 So, looking through the lens of where I’ve come from, the thought that I could be recognized by OSPA was not something that won over my thought process as I was being summonsed. The next fateful morning, it was indeed the big reveal. Carrie, the psych staff, Superintendent, plus Holly, my wife, had gathered to congratulate me. It was such a nice gesture, and it was a perfect example of the kind of people that are Nordonia.

It was also nice timing, because, like most of you in this room my role and function is consultative or collaborative. And sometimes, in between all of the PR-01s, shuffling from meeting to meeting, and putting out fires; I’ve asked question: am I making a difference? I’m sure that we can all remember a special teacher, family member, friend, maybe even a coach. In our role and function as a school psychologists, we might not have as many opportunities to have those intense relationships, but we can have influence.

To have an impact, to do the good work that Pete Gross recognized, we work in groups. What we can do is lead and guide groups to support kids in a way that puts them on the path to becoming a competent reader, and improve their learning. Business consultant Simon Sinek said that “A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.” Often school psychologists are the team members that have most knowledge about evidence based practices. We are often the ones that interpret assessment data and point teams to the best fit intervention. Sometimes we are the ones who lead teams not to take an action, and insist on gathering more data. And, sometimes it gets lonely because were the ones who stand up for something; and that can mean standing alone.

There is not much we have direct control of in our role and function as school psychologists. However, we are often the ones that calm the hysteria and bring the team back to problem solving. We are the part of a team that upholds the battle cries: all kids can learn. Control the controllables. Progress is the most important variable. All decisions are based on data.

So, with all of this talk of influence, it’s time for me to express some gratitude to those who have provided me with: encouragement, support, and friendship. First, to my mom who is definitely beaming with pride and boring everyone in heaven about how her son was honored by OSPA. To my sister who was such a good sport about whatever assessment I was studying in grad school.

For Dr. Jeanne Jenkins who has always been so encouraging, and who placed me in Mentor for internship. Cohort members and friends Molly Edwards and Stefania Cika. For Becky Dingeldein and Donna Valtmann, the gold standard of intern supervisors; and for showing me the best way to do things right from the start as an intern. For wonderful Pupil Service Directors: Sue Chute and her hiring decision; Dr. Margo Costello for her kind words in her recommendation letter; and Carrie Hutchinson for her lightning fast answers to my questions, and who continues to support the PD of our psych staff. For great principals -- especially Dr. Karen Muffley.

The great minds of the psych staff at Nordonia: Emma Sacha, Lauren Miller, Gina Worsdall, Laura Bovert, Roy Zeman, and particularly Dr. Lynn Ciccantelli for her efforts in nominating me. For Joyce Endrek who makes Pupil Service run smoothly. To Jen Wilhelm, my kindred spirit. For the interns that I have had the good fortune of supervising: David Tomasik, Allen Glassmire, and Ashley Graham, who have endured my daily pontifications while on internship, but also reminding me that learning is a two-way street.

For the two most important people in my life. To that first year teacher who I met on while internship, who makes me a better person every day, and is a great mom. I love you babe! And to Nolan, who brings me endless joy,  amazement; never stops teaching me about kids, and who overpowers me in negotiations on a daily basis.

In the epilogue of his book, Big Russ and Me, Native Buffalonian, and John Carroll Alum., Tim Russert, penned a letter to his son Luke as he was about to go off to college… In that letter, he talked about being dependable; that he needed to influence others, and never to forget where he came from. He also reminded Luke of something that he heard at commencement address, those words were, “The best exercise of the human heart, is reaching down and picking someone else up.” While spring time is the worst time of the year for us, please do not lose sight of the bigger picture. Deadlines are looming. Reports are being typed at this conference. Insanity begins with next request for an initial evaluation – and violence is acceptable if you get a prescription from a doctor for an MFE.

Please don’t forget that what we do as school psychologists influences lives for the better, and that we do pick others up. 

Pete Gross recognized the work that we do and the contributions that we make. Sometimes, our influence even gets noticed. I am flattered and honored that the awards committee and executive board thought that I should be in the same company as the previous recipients. Thank you for your recognition.