Published in the August 12, 2015 edition
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield School Department is seeking to enter into an intermunicipal agreement in order to partner with Reading in new post-graduate program to help special education students learn independent living skills and vocational skills.
Lyn O’Neil, Wakefield’s Administrator of Special Education and Student Services and Special Education Coordinator Donna Conlon, appeared before the School Committee last night to talk about the program and to seek the committee’s endorsement. That endorsement will be taken to the Board of Selectmen, which has the authority to enter into the agreement with Reading.
P.O.S.T. Academy stands for “Purposeful Opportunities for Successful Transition.” The program will help 18-22 year-old special education students transition to independent living. The School Department is required by law to provide educational services to qualifying special education students through age 22.
According to the program description, it would provide education and experience in areas of daily living, employment, community inclusion, recreation and real world academic skills in order to promote successful transition to adulthood as integrated members of the community.
The curriculum will help students with skills like self-advocacy, financial literacy, travel training, nutrition, housekeeping, consumer skills, health and sexuality and other independent living skills. The young adults in the program will also have opportunities to explore their vocational interests in different job settings through partnerships with local businesses providing short term internships. Overnight independent living experience is also part of the program.
O’Neil and Conlon explained that the program will be housed behind the Greenwood Fire Station. The space was formerly home to The Caring School and before that the Greenwood Branch Library. Some renovations will have to take place to make the space ready for the Sept. 8 opening of school.
A big advantage of the program is that it is local, O’Neil said. Wakefield students will stay in their community and job sites are within the community. Travel is also meaningful to the students because it is local. Because peers, friends and classmates are all local, O’Neil added, it helps to create a social structure for the students within the community.
Under the pending agreement, Reading would assume 50 percent of the staffing costs for the P.O.S.T. Academy, in addition to a portion of the Special Education Coordinator’s salary, O’Neil explained. All staff will be hired through Wakefield according to existing Wakefield Education Association contracts and the Wakefield School calendar.
O’Neil and Conlon told the School Committee that the program will serve 12 students. There will be two teachers (one with an academic focus and another focusing on vocational skills). In addition, there will be four paraprofessionals with academic and job coaching responsibilities.
Under the potential agreement with Reading, Wakefield would be responsible for the salaries of one of the teachers and two of the paraprofessionals. O’Neil and Conlon indicated that the teacher salary was already in the FY 2016 budget. The additional two paraprofessionals are being requested to adequately support students in the classroom and the community.
School Committee member Evan Kenney said that he supported the program concept but wanted more detail on exactly how much of the program cost was built into the FY 2016 budget.
“I can’t vote to endorse something if I don’t know the costs,” Kenney said. He suggested tabling the matter pending a financial analysis.
O’Neil said that she was concerned that if there were a delay, it would mean that the program would not be ready for the start of the school year.
School Business Manager Michael Pfifferling pointed out that if the committee tabled the matter, it would mean missing the August Board of Selectmen’s meeting at which he hoped the selectmen would approve the intermunicipal agreement.
School Committee member Anne Danehy call the program “exciting and well-thought out” but wondered why it wasn’t explicitly in the FY 2016 budget. She said that she was frustrated that it wasn’t done sooner.
Pfifferling said that the ongoing costs of the program were already budgeted. The big question was the construction costs to get the space ready, estimated to be in the range of $60,000 to $75,000 he said. But he said that he was comfortable that there was sufficient grant money and Circuit Breaker funding to cover all of Wakefield’s costs related to the program.
School Committee member Greg Liakos reminded the committee that any up-front investment in the program would result in the long-term return of keeping productive citizens in the community.
School Superintendent Dr. Kim Smith said that she was very concerned with getting the needed approvals in time.
Ultimately, Kenney said that he would support a motion to endorse the program but asked that in the future for matters to be brought to the committee before the deadline is imminent.
The School Committee voted unanimously to endorse the program. A second motion to approve the added personnel and to authorize Pfifferling to negotiate the lease of a van for the program was also unanimously approved.
The intermunicipal agreement will go before the Selectmen at their Aug. 17 meeting.
