Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
FAREWELL — The RSU 29 school board said goodbye to board member Scott White Monday evening. White’s term expired and he opted not to seek re-election. Presenting White with a certificate of appreciation is RSU 29 Superintendent Mike Hammer, left.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — A revision to the district’s job description for its head of special services drew considerable discussion from the RSU 29 directors during their Monday evening regular monthly meeting.
Superintendent Mike Hammer presented the board with the new job description for the special services director as part of an ongoing review of all job descriptions in the district. One line in particular though, raised concerns with several board members.
The new job description sought to have the district’s special services director (previously known as the special education director) to only have “oversight and development of 504 plans” while continuing to let other administrators handle the caseload.
A Section 504 case involves providing extra assistance to a student with needs who do not qualify for such help under the Special Education program. That assistance could be in the form of health issues, Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, social issues which prevent the student from functioning in the classroom, or other learning issues.
According to Hammer, 504 students are “students that are not Special Ed, but may need some form of accommodation in their educational plan that helps them be successful.” Individual meetings with the student’s parents or guardians are also required and can be time consuming, Hammer added.
The district’s former special education director, Marion Gartley, had previously handled that work as part of her regular salary. When Gartley retired at the end of the 2012 school year, the district hired Jan Neureuther to replace her at the start of the 2012-13 school year, but Hammer stated at that time he felt it would be too much to ask the new candidate to do the extra duties while learning the position.
A year ago, at the October, 2012 meeting, the school board had a lengthy conversation on the duties of the special services director and whether two administrators should be given stipends to perform the 504 responsibilities.
At that meeting, the board voted 10-3, to create the two stipend positions — at a combined cost of $5,000 — for just the 2012-13 school year, with the understanding that the duties be reviewed the following year to see if the special education director was able to take over the responsibilities.
“I think we were pretty clear (a year ago) that the entire responsibility was for this position, not just the oversight,” board member Fred Grant said Monday evening.
Board member John Tribou added that he thought the board had made it clear that the work was to be handled by the special services director.
“We said we would allow the stipend for a period of time to allow this person to get going,” Tribou said. “We gave it a bye for one year, then it was supposed to go back.”
Hammer said he has investigated how other school districts handle their 504 students and while many have their special education director handle it, those administrators “do not do every part and piece of it.”
“I believe, right now, we have the principals doing some of this work, because they know schedules of their buildings,” Hammer said. “Every one of these cases runs through Jan, but she does not run every meeting. This is a change from how we have done things in the past.”
Currently, several administrators are doing the work, but are not getting extra compensation for their effort. Grant said he was opposed to the idea of other individuals doing the extra work of the 504 caseload, and not getting compensated for it.
Hammer explained the administrative team has discussed the topic for about two years and he was comfortable with the current plan. Board chairman Liz Anderson said she felt the case managing should be determined by what is best for the individual student.
There are about 67 students district-wide that fall under the 504 category.
Grant made a motion to decrease the salary for the special services director so that a portion of that money could be used to compensate those individuals who are doing the work. That motion failed.
Several board members then expressed the matter should be tabled and discussed next month possibly in executive session.
In other agenda items, the school board:
• Approved Erica Tweedie as a seventh-grade girls basketball coach.
The next regular meeting of the RSU 29 school board will be Monday, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m. in the high school library.
