AUBURN — The School Committee on Wednesday approved hiring two educational technicians for the autism program at Walton School. The request was made by Ryan Fairchild, director of special education.
The School Department started the school year with four students in the program, but is in the process of adding two more.
“Tonight’s agenda was to talk about adding those two positions,” Fairchild said. “I wanted to express what it was for and be as transparent about our numbers as possible.”
Fairchild said about 19% of Auburn students require special education, which is 1% above the state average. That’s 655 to 700 students, he said.
Based on his observation, he provides answers to parents’ questions on testing and programming.
“And I want to make sure that I’m prepared to provide appropriate programming,” he said. “We try to keep them with their peers and provide functional skills where needed.”
In the final committee meeting of the election term, members ended Wednesday’s session by heading back into executive session to finalize Superintendent Katy Grondin’s evaluation.
The evaluation has been ongoing for the past few months. Grondin and the committee answered the same questions on the goals completed by the superintendent. Last week, the committee met with an attorney to evaluate the answers to those questions. With this being the final meeting, the board wanted to finalize the process Wednesday night.
While the panel was in executive session, Grondin said she believed the process was completed last week and the committee wanted one last chance to review their results. She believed she would get a copy of the evaluation in a couple of days.
Grondin resigned as superintendent a couple of weeks ago, with he final day scheduled for June 30, 2020.
She opened the meeting by praising the four committee members whose terms are ending — Chairwoman Bonnie Hayes, Patricia Gautier, Robert Mennealy and Alfreda Fournier.
The inauguration of the mayor, city councilors and school committee members is Monday, Dec. 16. The first meeting of the new committee is Wednesday, Dec. 18.
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