EASTON — The Talbot County Board of Education unanimously approved a special education staffing plan at its meeting Wednesday, but not without pinpointing areas to improve moving forward.
Kristin Mentges, director of special education, showed projections that indicate the number of elementary special education students will decrease at all five schools this fall, though that may change as younger students’ needs are identified early next school year.
While Easton High School had a projected decrease in special education students, Easton Middle projects to increase from 71 to 85 and St. Michaels Middle High is expected to go from 38 to 51 students.
Mentges recommended that elementary and secondary staffing remain the same heading into next year, as well as the seven current speech therapists.
“We do feel like the number of teachers can currently support this number of students,” Mentges said of the recommendation for secondary staffing. “The caseloads are going to be a little bit higher, but not a whole lot.”
Board members questioned if it would be more effective to analyze staffing needs for the elementary schools based on hours of need rather than number of students.
“116 students can be kind of elusive because it really is dependent upon the number of hours those students have,” board Vice President Candace Henry said, referencing the upcoming projection for Easton Elementary. “In configuring how many teachers are proposed, is it based on how many students that you have or how many hours the students are needing?”
“It’s both,” Mentges replied. “So we look at the hours, we look at the environments that the students are served in, as well as the numbers of students total.”
Henry asked that the presentation include those hours in the future, as did board President Emily Jackson.
“We have asked for hours every year, and we have not yet been able to discuss hours per student,” Jackson said. “We talk a lot, especially from a budget perspective, about our growing needs in special education. And to me it seems like our special ed staff has been pretty flat.
“It doesn’t seem like we are really as a county growing with the student need proportionally.”
Additional recommendations presented by Mentges included the addition of a special education supervisor and four additional instructional assistants “to support young students with more significant disabilities.”
Superintendent Sharon Pepukayi said the next step would be setting up a work session next month to lay out special education data and indicate areas to improve upon. Henry requested that in the future, a work session be scheduled prior to the approval of the staffing plan, to which the board and Pepukayi agreed.
“I would like to continue this conversation,” Jackson said. “A yes vote from me tonight does not mean a ‘check this box, let’s talk about it next year.’ If we could continue this conversation at a more frequent pace, that would be fantastic.”
ENROLLMENT STEADY
Kevin Shafer, Talbot County Public Schools’ director of operations, presented enrollment projects reviewed by the Maryland Department of Planning. Numbers are steady and no schools were marked to be overutilized.
“TCPS remains in a relatively comfortable position related to our overall utilization across all facilities,” Shafer said. He signaled housing development, demographic shifts and the state’s education plan — Blueprint for Maryland’s Future — as potential as areas of uncertainty in regards to enrollment and facility needs.
Easton High peaked around 93% facility utilization last year, according to how large of an enrollment it could support, but Shafer said that percent will drop in years to come. All other percents came in under 90%, with Tilghman Elementary at a district-low 57% last year.
Shafer was asked by the board which school may be next in line for renovations after Chapel District Elementary School’s upcoming expansion. He said Easton High School would be next, even if it’s not needed the most.
“We would look at the state facility assessment data and use the data in order to make an informed decision on what makes more sense,” Shafer said. “The truth of the matter is that Easton Middle School is probably in a greater need for a renovation, but unfortunately state funding is dependent on the age of the building. … We have some years yet before we would qualify for funding.”
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