Plan to dissolve Newport County regional special education program advances. What's next
The path for Little Compton, Middletown and Tiverton school districts to develop their own special education programs has become clearer with final decisions from each school committee to come within a few weeks.
The superintendents in charge of the Newport County Regional Special Education program had launched the process to decentralize their special education offerings in early January. Since then, the three superintendents of Little Compton, Middletown and Tiverton school districts presented the idea to dissolve the program to their respective school committees throughout the past month.
The school committees will have final say over whether the regional program will officially dissolve. Tiverton Superintendent Peter Sanchioni said the Tiverton School Committee plans to vote on the matter on Tuesday, Feb. 7 and Little Compton Superintendent Laurie Dias-Mitchell announced her school committee would take a vote that same week. Middletown Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger said the Middletown School Committee plans to make its decision on Feb. 17.
Special education:Why superintendents want to dissolve Newport County's regional special education program
With expectations the school committees will vote in favor of dissolving the regional program, the three superintendents are now focused on the dissolution plan and how best to divide things shared by the three communities. They’re currently working through how to handle counting part-time personnel hours between districts, finding or utilizing existing personnel with specific certifications, such as Adaptive Physical Education teachers, and managing transitional programs.
“There’s just a couple things that in the best interest of students, we’re going to look at how we’re going to share the costs of that program,” Sanchioni said.
Although facing a tight labor market, Dias-Mitchell said she’s optimistic about putting acquiring a special education director to head Little Compton School District’s future program.
“I do not suffer from deficit thinking,” Dias-Mitchell said. “I’m optimistic we’ll be able to find top-notch talent for a part-time director with a relatively small caseload and that position could also pick up some administrative tasks like the early childhood program that we have, reintegrated pre-school, assist with screening and so on and so forth and even assist with third-party booking.”
Education funding:Governor's budget cuts more than $1 million from Newport County schools
The three superintendents also wanted to reassure parents on the steps being taken to ensure students receive similar quality special education under their new, decentralized programs, especially since they are considering continuing to share certain resources among districts.
“We think of students across each of our town borders as belonging to all of us and if Peter needs placements, Little Compton is open and we welcome them, if we need placements in Tiverton and Middletown and I’m sure- I have it in an email, in writing- our children are welcome in their community,” Dias-Mitchell said. “Nothing is really changing, we’re just decentralizing administration and localizing 90% of what the region did for us and the other 10% we will continue to share our resources.”
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport County special education program moves toward dissolving
