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Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 10:47 AM
District shuffles location for some programs By Stephanie Creech | Daily Times Senior Writer Wilson County Schools is moving all of its preschool programming out of Adams Learning Center. The decision to move the students out of Adams will also affect students served by the district's Exceptional Children's program at several elementary schools, including Vick, New Hope and Elm City. Students in the four classes at Adams Learning Center will now attend Vick Elementary School, and the program will operate under the direction of Vick principal, Denise Taylor. The preschool coordinator position at Adams has been eliminated. Students in the preschool program will start classes after Labor Day, said Patti Sanders-Smith, assistant superintendent for instructional services. Smith said parents have been notified about the changes. She said for the most part the teachers do an excellent job developing a rapport with parents so she doesn't think there will be a real difference between the preschool program being at Adams versus Vick. The preschool program has been housed at Adams since the 2003-2004 school year. To make room for the preschool program, the district has moved the autistic class that was housed at Vick over to New Hope Elementary. Smith said moving the autistic class to New Hope should help cut some transportation costs because the students will be going to a school closer to where they live. Moving the autistic class to New Hope has resulted in the class for emotionally and mentally disabled students at New Hope to shift to Elm City Elementary. Smith said there was more room at Elm City Elementary. Once students clear out of Adams, the district will use the building to house the speech language pathologists, a lending library for parents and the district's technology specialists. He said they are at the point where they need to find ways to reduce costs but not services. The number of children being referred to the district for evaluation to determine if they need special services has grown. Last school year, 400 children in the district were referred. Price said out of the 400 students, 91 were identified as needing services. The cost of providing services to students went up over $200,000 last school year, Price said. Part of what's driving up service costs is the cost of the district contracting with private companies to do some of the student evaluations. To fight that, the district will now use its own employees to conduct student evaluations. Price also said personnel costs have gone up over the past several years. Some positions that have become vacant in the Exceptional Children's department have not been filled to try to help contain costs. Board member Christine Fitch raised several concerns about the changes. She reminded Price that the district is under federal mandate to identify and find children in need of services. Fitch said even though the rate of return is one out of four, the district can't relinquish its responsibility even though there is a cost factor. She also questioned whether the district is continuing to seek reimbursement for some of the costs from Medicaid. The district does pursue reimbursements from Medicaid. Fitch said containing costs and combining programs is well and good as long as the district is still meeting the needs of the children. Fitch said she hopes redistricting will help minimize some of the transportation costs. The school district is starting the process of drawing new attendance zone lines for all of its schools. Redistricting means the schools some children attend will change come next school year. Fitch applauded the decision to move the preschool program out of Adams Learning Center. She said she thinks the children at Adams need more interaction with children who do not have disabilities. She also thinks the older students at Vick will learn empathy and be able to show support for the younger children. But she said if not filling positions is a hindrance to meeting students' needs then the decision should be re-examined. Fitch questioned whether the district has enough speech language pathologists to do all of the requested evaluations if the district is not going to use contractors to do the screenings. Price said he has met with all of the Exceptional Children's staff, and they indicated these are changes they can make work. Price said if personnel is needed then they will do whatever is needed to fill those positions. Price said he doesn't disagree with Fitch. He thinks the changes can be made without negatively affecting the Exceptional Children's program at all. But Price said they will monitor the situation. Fitch asked that staff and the board to lobby our Congressional delegation for more funding for the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which requires school districts to seek out and serve students with disabilities. creech@wilsontimes.com | 265-7822
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