Board Briefs: Special Ed Department hires additional personnel

Wednesday evening Heidi Fawcett, head of the school district’s human resources department and acting director for Exceptional Student Services, asked for and received approval from the governing board to hire additional personnel for special education.

An additional half time resource person will be at Pima Butte Elementary and an adaptive P.E. position for the district will be filled. Both positions will be grant funded.

According to Fawcett, finding highly qualified, fully certified special education teachers is very difficult. She asked to raise the stipend for these teachers from $1,500 to $2,500 ( in addition to their contract amount). Again, grant monies will cover the cost of the increase for 15 certified teachers; interns will receive $1,500 as they have comparable caseloads and paperwork requirements.

Presently, special education in the district serves over 600 students. Based on the number of students and their respective disabilities, grant monies have increased from a little over $200,000 last year to nearly $500,000 for next year.

In addition, a program/training specialist will be named, specializing in compliance and IEP paperwork as well as developing trainings for staff and parents. A behavior specialist will focus on behavioral intervention plans, working specifically with special service providers. These positions will be a teacher’s contract plus 20 days additional pay.

Legal counsel approved
The firm of Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A. was approved to represent the board in the matter of the demand letters from the four individuals whose contracts were not renewed for this year.

Leadership retreat
Superintendent Dr. John Flores reviewed the two-day leadership team retreat held at Wild Horse Pass on Monday and Tuesday. Attending were administrators and members of the governing board.

Noting that goals, strategic planning and visioning resulted from the retreat, Flores said, “A lot of ideas and great perspective came out of it.”

Middle school field completions
Although the baseball field is completed at Maricopa Wells, softball and football fields are not. CORE Construction will be contacted regarding use of the sub-contractor who did the baseball field. If that is not successful, an RFP will be issued. That process, however, will delay completion up to eight weeks. Either way football will not be played on a middle school field this year.

Bond issuance and authorization
The district, which has a $16.7 million bonding capacity, sold its first round of bonds in May for $11,250,000. The September issuance for $16.7 million will bring the bond total to $27,950,000 of the $55.7 million total allowed.

Bond issuance will alter the assessed value of homes, but the level will remain the same as last year (81 cents per $100). Bond monies can only be used for capital expenditures, including transportation and brick and mortar structures.

Photo by Joyce Hollis