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Pupil services director seeks temporary supervisor, psychologists and social workers amid corrective-action concerns
Summary
Cassandra Jones told the finance committee the pupil services department faces corrective-action monitoring for untimely evaluations and proposed temporary supervisory help from CCIU, 2.9 psychologist FTEs (with CCIU support), two social workers, multiple special-education teacher positions and bringing contracted speech therapists in-house to reduce costs.
Cassandra Jones, the district's director of pupil services and supports, presented a comprehensive staffing and needs assessment to the finance committee and requested several near-term actions to address audit findings and student needs.
Jones said she inherited a department with insufficient capacity to meet timelines and that, as a result, the Bureau of Special Education placed the district into corrective action for failure to complete timely initial evaluations. "When I walked into the door in August, I was notified that the district was in corrective action for failure to complete timely initial evaluations," Jones said, warning the committee that sanctions are possible if the district does not remedy the deficiencies.
Her near-term requests included: an administrator-on-assignment (temporary supervisor) from the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) to free her to do policy and system-building work; 2.9 additional school-psychologist FTEs (with the CCIU agreeing to loan 2.5 of those FTEs in various configurations); two additional social workers (one to be staffed through reallocation); and multiple special-education teacher additions including long-term substitutes at elementary buildings, one autistic-support classroom at Greenwood (driven by two transitioning students and an 8-student cap per state rules), and additional learning-support teachers at different schools.
Jones also noted heavy reliance on contracted speech-and-language providers (PTS and Soliant): year-to-date contracted spending is $399,071 and the average contractor cost per therapist year-to-date is about $133,023. She said hiring speech-language staff as district employees (estimated full cost including pension at about $115,000 per FTE) could deliver cost savings and improved consistency.
Jones highlighted early-intervention trends: 69 students are expected to transition into kindergarten next fall already receiving entitled services, and the district has about 50 initial evaluations in the queue. She flagged an increase in autism identification (from ~7.9% in 2021 to about 12.9% in recent counts), and said out-of-district tuition for intensive programs can exceed $85,000 per student annually, later adding that related services and transportation push real costs above $100,000 per pupil in some placements.
Board members and administrators asked questions about sourcing (CCIU vs. private contractors), potential cost offsets through reallocation or medical-access funding, the difficulty of recruiting experienced clinicians, and nurse coverage. Several members urged prioritizing a few essential hires before the budget approval next week and exploring reallocation and contractual adjustments.
Next steps: Jones and central-office administrators said they will analyze which requests can be funded or reallocated for the coming school year, consider temporarily staffing via the CCIU, and return with a prioritized list ahead of the board's budget vote.
