VOORHEESVILLE — This fall, half of Voorheesville’s 79 special-needs students in the secondary school will learn from extra teachers in general-education classrooms rather than leaving their classrooms to learn in a separate resource room.

The school has about 780 students in grades six through 12.

This is called a push-in model as opposed to a pull-out model and, said Karen Jones, director of pupil personnel services, it allows teachers “to support the student in the moment.”

In December 2015, the state sent out a field memo stating that schools have to provide services “in the least restrictive environment” and that there is “compelling research” showing students do better with the consultant teacher, or push-in, model, Jones told the school board on Monday evening.

“It’s probably long overdue,” said school board member Diana Straut. “We’ve not been in compliance in offering a continuum of services.”

This sentiment was echoed, later in the meeting, by both the middle school and high school principals. The elementary school already uses a push-in model.

“Thank you, Karen, for bringing a consultant teacher model to Voorheesville, which was looong overdue,” said Laura Schmitz, the high school principal, drawing out the word “long” for emphasis.  She also said that, in order to “get to performing” there would have to be “storming” and “norming.”

Jennifer Drautz, the middle school principal, praised Jones for the “needed model” and said it is “great to see teachers planning together.”

Jones told The Enterprise after the meeting the new model will incur no additional costs for the district. “We haven’t had to hire any new staff,” she said. “We’re just using staff differently.”

Teachers who had instructed students in the resource room will instead teach them in general-education classrooms.

With two teachers in the same classroom, Jones told the board, they can learn from each other. The student-to-teacher ratio is improved and instruction can be differentiated. In other words, the special-education teacher could, for example, help several students who struggle with a particular concept while the classroom teacher continues lessons with the other students.

This summer, Voorheesville teachers received two days of training on the new model, Jones said; they will have monthly support throughout the school year and be provided with common planning time so the classroom and special-education teachers can work together.

“It’s a learning curve for everyone,” said Jones. “We’ll keep our fingers on the pulse, monitoring for what changes need to be made.” Each special-education student is evaluated individually, Jones said, and those who still need the resource room will receive instruction there. Seven is the maximum number of special-education students that will be grouped in a single classroom, she said.

One of the challenges for classroom teachers, she said, will be “giving up control.” Teachers need to build relationships, realizing they are both working for the same goal — “the student succeeding,” said Jones.

“They can capitalize on each other’s strengths,” said the board’s president, Cheryl Dozier.

“It’s exciting if we do it well,” said Straut.

“During professional development, the staff really embraced it,” said Jones.

Trustee C. James Coffin asked that the board receive an update halfway through the school year “to see if it’s working.”

Four goals

Superintendent Brian Hunt went over the district’s four goals for the upcoming school year, presenting a chart, posted on the district’s website, that breaks down each goal into “action steps,” noting who is responsible for the actions and outlining a “timeline for implementation.”

The principals also reported on steps taken toward meeting the goals. The goals state that the district will:

— Create an academic culture of openness and continuous improvement, including continuous teacher development and high quality instruction across all grades;

— Support student achievement by developing students’ potential for scholarship, curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving; capacity for independent, self-directed learning; and social and emotional growth and well being;

— Enhance communication strategies to engage all community members in student learning; and

— Be faithful stewards of the community’s financial commitment to the children and be responsible in managing all resources.

For example, one action the district is taking to meet the social and emotional needs of students, part of the second goal, is to have faculty volunteer for training through a BOCES program in “de-escalating students in crisis,” Hunt said. Those trainers will, in turn, teach the staff how to help students “come down from a crisis and learn from it,” he said.

“When they’re in good shape socially and emotionally, they’ll do better at school,” said Hunt.

As part of the fourth goal, “We’re now working toward a building project,” said Hunt, which would upgrade heating systems, roofs, and technology. “We have to be ready,” he said, noting the target date for a public vote is May 2018.

“We had a fulsome and dynamic conversation during our board retreat,” said trustee Doreen Saia. “This reflects that,” she said of the Hunt’s presentation.

She went on to say she was “a fix-it kind of person” and that more timelines are needed for the curriculum committee “so we can track and move forward.”

“There are no teacher voices on the curriculum committee, which is bizarre,” said Kathy Fiero, the president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Association.

“We can talk about it,” responded Dozier.

Tax warrant

The board unanimously approved, without discussion, a tax warrant for the 2016-17 school year.

James Franchini, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, told The Enterprise that the district’s unreserved balance totals $1,647,189. “From that $1.6 million, we’re using $1,322,189 to go into the unappropriated fund balance,” he said. “That gives us $325,000 to reduce the tax levy.” He added that this calculation was part of the budget process from the start.

On Wednesday, Franchini said his office was busy calculating the tax rate for district residents. Late in the day, he reported these numbers. New Scotland residents will pay $19.37 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for their school taxes in 2016-17, up three cents from last year.

Parts of the Voorheesville school district also lie in Guilderland and Berne. Guilderland residents will pay $21.98 this year, up four cents from last year. And Berne residents will pay $30.22 this year, up five cents from last year.

The rates vary because of state-set equalization rates, meant to have residents in different towns paying the same amount of taxes for similar properties.

Other business

In other business, the board:

— Heard from Fiero that the teaching schedule was not in place by July 1 as the teachers’ contract requires. “There may be a grievance,” she said;

— Made appointments for coaches, advisors for extracurricular activities, mentors, Dignity for All Students Act coordinators, evaluators, and teaching assistants, among others. Newly appointed elementary teacher Courtney Slentz was praised by Straut, who had been her teacher;

— Heard an enthusiastic report from the elementary school principal, Jeffrey Vivenzio, that the new bridge linking the school to the parking lot, by spanning the Vly Creek, had been lowered into place by a crane. “It’s sturdy; it’s awesome,” he said. “They brought it in completely prepared and set it in place”;

— Learned that it is mandatory for students in sixth through 12th grades participating in extracurricular activities or team sports to attend a session with their parents on Aug. 24 where an as-yet-unnamed speaker will counsel them on health issues.

“We’re not just bringing in someone local; we’re investing in this,” said trustee Cynthia Monaghan. She said the session will be filmed so that students who are absent can meet the requirement by watching it later; and

— Approved the creation of the Bob Samuel Memorial Scholarship Fund. Samuel, a long-time Voorheesville science teacher and department chairman, died on Aug. 3 at the age of 69.

“I taught with Bob,” said Hunt. “He was just a great guy — so energetic and upbeat; he always related to the kids. This is a great way to honor him.”