The shared programs in AOS 93 are under examination as officials consider changes to the 2015-2016 budget model, but the Alternative Classroom for Educational Services program, headquartered at the Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta, is still hard at work giving all students a chance at learning.
The ACES program provides behavior plans, social skills meetings, planned academic programming, and individual counseling for each at-risk student, according to head teacher Veronica Babcock.
The term at-risk student is used to describe a student who requires temporary or ongoing intervention in order to succeed academically.
“All students should have the same chance at receiving a good education, and at being accepted,” Babcock said.
The program serves the entirety of AOS 93 with one head teacher, 12 education technicians, one behavior specialist, and one social worker.
The sooner at-risk students are identified, the more likely preventative measures and programs will be effective, according to a study.
“Currently we have 17 students in the [ACES] program. Eleven of them are in mainstream classrooms with some amount of support from our education technicians, and four spend the majority of their day in the ACES classroom,” Babcock said.
The ACES classroom incorporates small groups and one-on-one lessons for the four students who spend the majority of their day in the classroom.
Of the 17 students in the ACES program, 13 come from Great Salt Bay Community School, while two come from Nobleboro, one from Bristol, and one from Jefferson.
The total 2014-2015 budget for the ACES program is $407,010.76.
The ACES budget has been based on a model where the sending schools would pay the tuition and the cost of an educational technician for each student, according to AOS 93 Business Manager Katherine Hunt.
The tuition-cost model forces GSB to pay the remaining balance of the ACES budget.
For 2015-2016, AOS 93 has proposed two budget models, Hunt said. The proposed models both have the same end expense, but where the funding is coming from will change.
The first proposal is a program enrollment percentage model, where funding is based on the percentage of students from each school in AOS 93 in the ACES program.
The second proposal is a population enrollment model, where funding is based on the total number of students attending each school, Hunt said.
Jefferson Village School’s cost to the ACES program would increase from $32,878.46 to $82,460.38 with the population enrollment model.
According to Jefferson Village School Committee Chair Bob Westrich, the consensus of the committee is that if a change were to occur, it should be phased in rather than all at once.
“We don’t want shock and awe,” Westrich said.
Hunt said the AOS 93 board will vote on the proposed models Tuesday, Dec. 9.
According to Babcock, some GSB families send their children to the school because of its special education programs.
“Our resource room, life skills room, and ACES are all good programs for students with special needs,” Babcock said.
The ACES program schedule is unlike those of traditional classrooms. Weekly activities include a focus art class and a cooking class.
“We have a Thanksgiving meal coming up for [the students]. It’s a good way to connect the history to the meal itself,” Babcock said.
All ACES students are with their mainstreamed classmates for their other art classes as well as all of their music and gym classes, lunch, and recess.
To further integrate the mainstream classrooms with the ACES program, two classrooms are coming with the ACES kids to support them in the county-wide Special Olympics swimming and track and field events, Babcock said.
Parents of ACES students often request to be connected to other parents and to the program itself, Babcock said.
“A lot of times parents feel like they’re the only ones who have a student with special needs,” Babcock said. “It really does take a team to run a program like this.”
