JAY – School Committee members voted this week to participate in a pilot behavioral program between Jay and SAD 36 special education departments that will be launched next school year.

The program is expected to cost $150,000 and be split between the two systems, Superintendent Robert Wall said.

The committee on Thursday approved using $30,000 from a special education reserve account for students with special needs. The rest of the money will come from local entitlement funds, which are federal dollars administered by the state for innovative programs, he said.

The program is going to have a preventative approach toward special education students who have behavioral concerns, Wall said.

Right now, Jay doesn’t have a behavioral program per se, he said.

This will be a cooperative program with Evergreen Behavioral Services for students in grades six through 11.

SAD 36 students would be bused to Jay to participate in the program, which will be housed at the high school.

Staff members that will be needed are a special education teacher, a trained substitute teacher and full-time education technician II, and licensed clinical social worker. The latter two would come through Evergreen, he said.

SAD 36 approved the proposal at its May 31 meeting.

The Jay School Committee also approved $39,843 to be used from a long-term reserve for an access control system at the three schools, Wall said.

“It secures all our perimeter doors,” he explained.

After students arrive at the schools in the morning, all doors will be locked except the front door, he said. People will be able to enter the main lobby but will have to be buzzed in to proceed farther into the building, he said.

Staff members will be able to swipe an identification card at most of the doors to enter a building, he said.

Committee members also OK’d a request from high school Principal John Robinson for an extended school year from July 10 to Aug. 9 for students there.

The program will allow students to work with a teacher to recover credits they failed to earn, he said.

The board also voted to accept a subcommittee’s recommendation to allow 20 classes with 10 or fewer students to be held next year.

Initially there were 42 classes fitting that category, Wall said. The subcommittee reviewed 27 classes that had 10 or fewer students and made recommendations to consolidate some classes and reduce the number to 20, he said.

“In doing that we not only increase efficiency of programs, we will utilize the staff better,” he said.