In an effort to continue meeting the growing needs of the special education population, the Warren County R-III School District will be hiring additional staff in those areas.The board approved the addition of four new positions during its monthly meeting on July 13. The roles will be filled by three staff serving full time in one building and another splitting time between buildings.“The number that case loads should be at per DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) and OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) desired is 60 or below,” explained Dr. Sandy Borgmann in a statement.“There are two buildings that concern me at this time. Rebecca Boone has high needs due to their demographics and academic achievement. Warrenton High School has high needs due to behaviors that are not supported at this time.”The district will be adding a new special education teacher at the high school level to provide more individualized instruction.“Especially at the high school, we’ve got to do a better job in helping them transition out of public school as they become adults and get into the workforce,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jill Schowe.“We’ve got to prepare all students but specifically those with special needs. We’ve got to have them trained and ready for some kind of job.” The board also approved the addition of a psychological examiner in the district, as well as an additional teacher at Rebecca Boone Elementary.“That’s where those teachers are slotted to go right now,” said Schowe. “If after new enrollment in school there would be a higher need at Daniel Boone then that teacher would go there. Right now based on end of year numbers new staff would be distributed this way.”The final two positions will be a speech and language pathologist in halftime roles at Rebecca Boone Elementary and the high school.The ratio of special education students per teacher is not measured in actual students but rather units of time. Schowe says the suggested recommendation is no more than 60 units per day but the district had some staff in excess of 80 units per day.“We didn’t have any behavior center at the high school to work on students with IEPs that needed that behavior support piece in the past,” added Schowe. “Now we’ll have a behavior program from kindergarten through 12th grade.”School News