By Winslow Durgin,Special to the Sun Journal

MECHANIC FALLS – Elm Street School Principal Mary Martin briefed the School Committee on Tuesday night on possible new requirements for early childhood special education services.

According to Martin, State Education Commissioner Susan Gendron’s goal is to establish a seamless process for the delivery of services to special needs children from preschool into regular public school programs.

“Right now, it’s hard to envision what it will look like,” Martin said.

A commission to study early childhood special education, birth through age 8, will report its findings and recommendations in January 2007 and, Martin said, local school departments may be asked to implement a program for the 2008-09 school year.

Among the challenges for local schools, Martin said, is whether they will be ready to offer programs as strong as preschool programs being offered now by nonschool service providers.

Some big questions include how schools will find the staff and the space to do it, as well as the money.

“On the national and state levels, they are seeing dropping school enrollments, so presumably the school systems have room, but we haven’t seen it here and most of (Union 29) schools don’t have space for additional programs,” Martin said.

Union 29 Special Education Director Barbara Hasenfus noted that in the other 49 states, schools are responsible for early childhood special education services.

In other business, prior to voting on a three-year work agreement with the education support staff, the committee listened to appeals from several of the Elm Street School’s education technicians bargaining for greater health insurance benefits.

The committee took the stand that town meeting voters would find the cost for the added coverage, estimated at about $10,000, unpalatable.

“If we could pay you more, we would pay you more. As it is, we’re looking at cutting teachers,” Chairman Terri Arsenault said.

The term of the support staff work agreement runs from July 2006 to June 2009.

In her principal’s report, Martin noted that, based on Maine Learning Results Performance Standards, the Elm Street School is recognized as an improving school for math at both the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.

Assistant Principal Arthur Reed announced that the “Price is Right” night raised $9,250 to help support the eighth-graders’ two-day spring trip to Boston.

Also Tuesday, the committee approved the 2006-07 school calendar which, for the first time, will be the same in Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland. The panel also, in response to Assistant Superintendent Marc Gendron’s query, reaffirmed that substitute teachers, coaches and any volunteers who may be required by state law to be fingerprinted, will bear the $55 cost themselves.

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