The growing in-house special education program at Aubrey ISD secured an alternative to filling positions during the board’s meeting on May 21.
Assistant Superintendent Eric Hough and Special Programs Director Karen Wright presented the board with the issue of filling certain specific positions, namely special education diagnosticians, and asked for leave to use contracted services to bridge the gap in case of emergency.
“What we’re discovering is there are not as many of those out there as we would have hoped,” Hough said. “In an attempt to make sure we have coverage in the areas we need it as we’re starting off, we’re asking that you allow us, when needed, to use these companies to fill the gap.”
They asked for the ability to contract with any of three services connected to the district’s Coop.
“We would only use them if we can’t find a full-time person or if the position is [under full time],” Hough said. “We have situations where we only need a quarter of a person, and it didn’t make sense to hire a full-time person for that quarter.”
He further explained that the reason he and Wright were bringing the issue before the board is because of its open ended nature.
“There is a possibility that it could be over $50,000, and we didn’t want to get to the $49,000 mark and go, ‘well hold on, you can work here for three weeks until we have the next board meeting,’” Hough said. “We just wanted to get prior approval, and if we don’t need it, we obviously aren’t going to use it.”
Board member Benton Bland asked for clarifi cation on the budget side for how the process would work, where Superintendent Dr. Shannon Saylor chimed in.
“We would have the salary money set aside, and if we didn’t end up finding a body to do the job, that money would move over to contracted services,” Saylor said.
Board secretary Jody Gonzalez also offered a stipulation, which the team had already considered and planned to address.
“[Karen Wright] did tell them that if our staff was going to be here in person, they needed to be here, too,” Hough said. “We’ll provide in the contract writing that they need to be in person.”
The board unanimously approved the ask.
Earlier in the meeting the school board also welcomed back Jim Milacek and Trey Duncan, who both ran unopposed in the May election.
Following each board offer, Milacek, Colleen Dow and Gonzalez retained their officer positions as president, vice president and secretary.
