District to Cut 66 Aides, Change Special Education Model

After weeks of budget workshops, the Lindenhurst Board of Education has finalized a 2013-14 budget that features a 1.99 percent tax levy and the removal of 66 aide positions and $1.1 million in reserves.

The Board is set to adopt the budget on April 25 at 7 p.m. at a special meeting at the McKenna Administration Building.* (*This information's been updated to reflect the change, per information shared by the Lindenhurst School District.)

The 1.99 percent tax levy breaks down to an annual school tax increase of $221.14 for the average home assessed at $4,500, according to Superintendent Richard Nathan.

Click here to read about the reserves used to reduce the tax levy.

Click here to read about what was cut from the 2013-14 school budget and what programs were saved.

Associated Program Changes
The proposed budget and associated tax levy that was finalized on Wednesday night already included 66 aides being cut, due to a change to the Lindenhurst School District’s special education program model.

The District is moving to an Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) Model at the elementary school level from the current Inclusion Model.

Currently Inclusion features supplemental instruction for special education students in the form of 40 minutes/day push-in with a consultant teacher and 40 minutes/day pull-out in the Resource Room.

Next year ICT would feature primary instruction for those same students in the form of 120 minutes/day push-in with an integrated co-teacher and 120 minutes/day push-in with a CSS (certified teacher).

Self-contained special education elementary classes would stay at 15 from this year to next, but seven 15:1 classes at Alleghany Avenue Elementary School will be reduced to five, one 6:1:1 class at Daniel would increase to two and one 8:1:1 class would be added at the McKenna Administration Building to bring back several student in District.

Associated Personnel Cuts, Savings
The change is designed to lessen the time these students might be pulled out of the classroom, and help more of them be in the least restrictive environment as possible.

But as a result of the program changes, the District would realize staff savings, and originally estimated 65 to 100 aides were to be cut at a savings of between $845,000 to $1.3 million.

After examining the program change and looking at CSEs and IEPs, which might require one-on-one aides for particular students, the District’s put the number on Wednesday night at 66, with the savings being at the lower end of the aforementioned projected range.

The District has 296 students with IEPs and an additional 11 students with 111 students with 504s. There are 135 special education aides and 15 associated with 504s, plus another estimated 29 consultant support staff, for a total that nears 190 adults for all of these students.

This number is high, Nathan explained, compared to other districts: “We have many, many more aides than other school districts.”

The ICT Model would streamline the amount of aides, according to the District, and allow it to achieve some consistency in titles and responsibilities of the aides.

Nathan also said the District would also be looking at assigning one or two floater aides at each building “for better flexibility.”

Following IEPs
He, as well as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Instructional Personnel Dr. Shari Camhi and Assistant to the Superintendent for Special Education and Pupil Personnel Services Barbara Brown, stressed if a one-on-one aide is required by a student’s IEP as a result of a CSE, then that aide wouldn’t be cut.

The cuts, however, would affect many of the classroom aides, as ICT would ensure more dedicated teachers in the classroom with greater in-classroom instruction, according to them.

For instance, in Alleghany alone, where there are more students with IEPs, the new model would provide those students with a full-time, regular education teacher, a full-time, special education teacher and a full-time consultant staff member certified in special education, they said.

In the other five elementaries there’d be general education all day, with a special education co-teacher and a CSS (consultant teacher) in the way described earlier in this article: 120 minutes/day push-in with an integrated co-teacher and 120 minutes/day push-in with a CSS (certified teacher).

"We’re upgrading the program as far as we’re concerned,” Nathan said.

However, it was also stressed the CSS (consultant teachers) wouldn’t replace aides, and reiterated the District would adhere to the aide requirements of individual students’ IEPs.

Click here to access the PDF file about this change to special education on the District’s website.

Contract Talks
Also of note the aides are one of five employee bargaining units with which the District and BOE are still negotiating; the others are TAL (teachers), clerical, administrators and nurses.

The custodian contract was settled earlier this year.

The BOE said on Wednesday talks with all outstanding units are on-going, and it remains “hopeful” agreements will be reached - but didn’t feel any contract agreements would be reached before budget adoption on April 25.*

More Personnel Changes
In the meantime, according to Nathan, other personnel cuts mainly due to declining enrollment and attrition included:

• Net of 9.7 positions at the elementary level (after eliminating three sixth grade positions and adding six more - two each of special education, math and English).
• Net of 3.4 teaching positions at the Lindenhurst High School (reason: declining enrollment and student elective selections).
• One clerical and one custodial position (reason: retirement).