FARMINGTON – The Mt. Blue Regional School District school board voted Tuesday evening to go from a four-school to a three-school day treatment program, after a discussion about providing adequate space at Cascade Brook School.
The board had previously discussed this issue within the context of the budget process, in an effort to line up the special education teachers, Ed Techs and social workers to allow the day treatment program to function. The program provides services for children with severe emotional disorders, allowing students grades K through 12 to stay in the district rather than placing them in out-of-district programs, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Day treatment programs ran in four schools this year: W.G. Mallett School, Cape Cod Hill School, Cascade Brook School and the Mt. Blue Campus.
That configuration has led to district social workers being spread too thin throughout the district. The proposed 2015-16 budget includes two new positions: a social worker/professional counselor that would split their time between the day treatment program and Mt. Blue Middle School, and a social worker/professional counselor that would be responsible for district-wide testing and other duties. However, Special Education Director Christine Gatto-Shea said Tuesday, at least one more social worker would need to be hired to continue running a day treatment program at Cape Cod Hill School. In addition to being key figures within a program that focuses on emotional disorders, the social worker coverage is necessary for the district to be able to bill MaineCare to help pay for the program.
Under the plan approved Tuesday evening, grades K through 2 would attend the day treatment program in Mallett, grades 3 through 6 would attend CBS, and grades 7 through 12 would go to Mt. Blue Campus. CCHS students would attend day treatment in Mallett or CBS, depending on their grade level. According to Gatto-Shea, there are currently 4 CCHS program students that would go to CBS and no students that would attend Mallett.
The issue will be providing adequate space at Cascade Brook. In addition to the new day treatment program students, the school is now expecting the Life Skills program to grow from 5 to 9 students. One proposal to provide space would be to move the principal’s office across the hall into the library area, and create a doorway to connect two classrooms for Life Skills.
Some school board directors questioned the plan, either due to a desire to keep the principal adjacent to the school secretary or a general concern about providing enough space for the future. Director Yvette Robinson of Farmington contrasted the proposal to shifting 6th grade from the elementary schools to Mt. Blue Middle School; the board has since decided to move central office to the high school due to an unanticipated increase in the number of special education students.
“Does this option give us room to grow?” Robinson asked.
Gatto-Shea said that without seeing the renovated space, she couldn’t say how many more students the CBS special education programs could fit. She said that one of the difficulties in planning for special education population changes was the fluid nature of the programs, where a single child could move into the district and require a wide range of services. For example, two new Adaptive Needs students recently enrolled, administrators said Tuesday. Both with require one-on-one services with an Ed Tech.
After a few minutes of discussion about possible space configurations, Director Keith Swett of Wilton asked if directors typically addressed classroom adjustments for other district programs, rather than sticking to the setting of policy. The majority of the directors agreed to leave the spacial issues up to the administration and voted to approve the three-school day treatment proposal.
Eleven directors were in favor of the proposal, with five opposed: Robinson, Director Iris Silverstein of Farmington, Director Ross Clair of Chesterville, Director Jennifer Pooler of New Sharon and Director Cherieann Harrison of Wilton were opposed. The weighted vote total was 609 in favor and 392 opposed.
