Potential Changes for New Beginnings Program at Perkiomen Valley High School

Perkiomen Valley School District's Director of Special Education Dr. Mark McIntyre at Monday night's school board work session outlined proposed changes for the high school's New Beginnings program.

New Beginnings works with students who are in danger of failing or have truancy or other behavioral issues, excluding those who recently violated the drugs and/or weapons policy.

Program changes are aimed at better meeting the No Child Left Behind requirements as well as saving money by educating more of these students within the district. The program would also be taken out of the alternate education category to allow for “greater flexibility in behavior supports” and “quicker transition in and out of the program,” according to McIntyre’s presentation.

The New Beginnings Learning and Assessment Center, as it would be called, would move from the first floor of the high school to half of the rarely used IPC on the second floor, McIntyre said. It would have small conference room; two bathrooms, a large classroom area, a kitchen and a large conference room for counseling. Half of the room will still be IPC, and one of the conference rooms will be available for teacher meetings scheduled for 2 p.m. and later.

The current program has hosted four students “at a time,” McIntyre said. With the proposed changes, up to 15 students could be in the program.

Other revisions include having one, full-time special education teacher to work with students instead of one paraprofessional and teachers from the English, social studies, science and math departments.

McIntyre said having the same person throughout the year in the classroom would help cultivate the student-teacher bond and provide stability and consistency many of these students need, as well as improve teacher-parent communication.

The students will receive online instruction from the Brandywine Virtual Academy, allowing them to work at their own pace. The special education teacher would be on hand to help guide their learning, and the students would be able to contact BVA instructors via email or phone. McIntyre said the BVA would allow for more flexible scheduling and potentially include more students in the program.

In years past, vocational students who may have benefited from New Beginnings could not attend because of class schedule conflicts. With BVA, schedules can be tailored to each student, including those who may need New Beginnings for one subject.

The revised New Beginning program could help students catch up on needed credits for one course, McIntyre said, thus improving the high school’s graduation rate.

With the revisions, New Beginnings could also absorb special education students and help some students ease back into the mainstream school community, McIntyre said. (See the included PDF for more program details.)

In other business:

• Next week, the board will vote on whether the earth science course will receive 400 new textbooks (costing of $78.97 each, $31,329 in total), a 10-cent increase to student meals, recommended changes to the student handbook (see PDF) and special education vendor contracts (see PDF).

• The board discussed committee appointments. Diane Landes volunteered to serve on the co-curricular committee; a position for a board member is still open on the Central Perkiomen Valley Regional Planning Committee.

After the meeting adjourned, the board went into an executive session to discuss a personnel matter.