The Harwood Unified Union School District Board heard a proposal from school administrators and the district superintendent that outlined a pilot program to move student support services that are currently outsourced into Brookside Primary School.
At its December 13 meeting the board heard a proposal for what is being called the RIVERS program, to be piloted at Brookside Primary School next fall for a very small number of students with mental health and behavioral needs. RIVERS stands for “regulation, inclusion, voice, education, relationships, and safety.”
Administrators and central office staff, along with district superintendent Dr. Mike Leichliter explained that the RIVERS program is an effort to bring this type of student care in house as opposed to outsourcing it. The program is aimed at addressing staffing shortages with agencies contracted for student services and also aimed at creating a more community-based solution to addressing student needs.
The goal is to start the program small, at Brookside and if it is successful grow it to include students from other schools in the district or create similar programs at other schools. The cost of contracting for the type of one-on-one student support (and in some cases two-on-one) services is $115,000 per student per year. Additionally, some students are bused daily to day school programs in Barre where tuition is $141,207.
Brookside co-principal Chris Neville said the vision of the RIVERS program would be to meet the needs of the students at the school in a separate classroom where kids have their needs met until they’re ready or able to return to the general population with a goal of having all students in the least restrictive learning environment possible for the most time possible.
The administrators outlined the benefits of having students in their community schools and with their peers as much as possible. In terms of cost, they explained, finding, and training the right staff for such a program is still being analyzed. Ultimately it may cost as much as what the district is currently paying, or it may cost less, but the outcomes may be better.
Initially the program will be started with two to four students at Brookside with analysis underway now and planning/training taking place next summer for a September 2024 start.
Earlier in the meeting the board heard from Deb Hunter, Moretown, who served on the Harwood Union school board for six year and the Moretown school board for six years. She retired last year after 38 years as professor at UVM and came to the district to offer to substitute teach. She was encouraged to and agreed to work as a paraeducator. She encouraged the board to recognize the value of paraeducators and all support staff who work in the district and noted that support staff have been working without a contract since the start of the school year.
“Last year, the work of this board’s negotiating team and the support staff team ended in an impasse. Now things have progressed to the fact-finding stage. The work now is to find a resolution. The issues are wages and the fact that sick days are half of those provided to teaching staff. Wages haven’t kept up with inflation,” Hunter said, adding that everyone in the district, needed to work together in a unified fashion to advance efforts to pass a bond vote next year
“Let’s resolve this impasse and work together. We are Harwood strong and Harwood proud,” she said.
The board cancelled a second meeting in December to work on budgeting after learning that the Vermont Agency of Education data that is needed to create a budget was issued and was incorrect. Without accurate data about how student weights are counted, the board can’t accurately create budgets.
