MINOT – The School Committee on Tuesday night asked for more information on special education staffing before going along with a request to approve a stipend for a team leader.

Minot Consolidated School Principal Margaret Pitts said a recent incident shows someone is needed to coordinate the placement of pupils coming into the special education program.

Pitts related that she met with the parents of an incoming upper-grade pupil regarding special education services, and it was only at the meeting that she learned the family had a child who would be entering kindergarten who also would need such services.

Because she was unaware of that need, Pitts said, she had to schedule a second meeting calling the parents in a second time when, had she been aware of the situation, it all could have been handled with one meeting.

School Committee Chairman Lisa Sabatine questioned why the coordination of services, finding out what a family might need, couldn’t be the responsibility of the grade-appropriate special education teacher as a matter of course, with no need for an added stipend.

Union 29 Special Education Director Barbara Hasenfus replied that the special education teachers’ schedules were packed and the duties paid by stipend would need to be taken care of after school hours.

Hasenfus also noted that a key function of the team leader would be to help set up the schedules for all of the education technicians. She pointed out that special education programs in all other Union 29 schools in Mechanic Falls and Poland have team leaders.

Minot’s special education program, Hasenfus said, with three special education teachers, nine full-time education technicians, a nurse/part-time education technician and a speech and language clinician for its 38 students, fully complied with special education requirements and she would just as soon keep it that way.

Regular education teacher Janice Rawson pointed out that during contract negotiations, middle school level teachers had sought an appointment and stipend for a team leader and had been turned down. When Rawson wondered if appointing a team leader for special education teachers would trigger reopening overall teacher contracts, the School Committee asked Hasenfus to present full information on special education staffing for it to sort out at its October meeting.

In other business, Pitts reported that pupils in grades three through eight did very well in the latest MEA test. She said there were no grades that scored below average in either math or reading and that pupils in grades three and four were commended for work that exceeded the norm in both math and reading as did fifth grade pupils in math.

Pitts also noted that the school year is off to a great start with the overall atmosphere the best she has seen in her four years as principal.