School Board approves WCPS plans to split Special Services, reward bus drivers

Warren County School Board Vice Chair Ralph Rinaldi led the board during its June 7 meeting.

The Warren County School Board, on Wednesday, June 7, voted unanimously to split its Special Services division into two separate offices and voted 4-0 to pay a bonus to contracted bus drivers who had stellar attendance during the 2022-2023 school year.  

Vice Chair Ralph Rinaldi and board members Antoinette Funk, Andrea Lo, and Melanie Salins were present to vote. School Board Chair Kristen Pence was absent from Wednesday’s meeting.

The school division’s newly approved Special Services Restructuring Plan is designed to reduce the complexity of the department, decrease inefficiencies, respond to new demands, develop more effective programs, increase accountability, and increase the student services provided by WCPS, according to Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) Superintendent Christopher Ballenger, who presented details to board members about the plan.

“As part of the restructuring, I propose developing the Office of Pupil Services to meet the needs of a special population who may or may not be disabled,” said Ballenger prior to the board’s vote. “Most of the time, pupil services and special education are usually split. But here in Warren County, they’ve been combined, creating a huge department.”

Ballenger outlined how program responsibilities would be divided between the new Office of Pupil Services and the Office of Special Services and discussed changes and updates for related personnel positions.

For instance, the Special Services division of WCPS would be responsible for overseeing special education; speech and psychologists; occupational and physical therapy; nurses; pre-kindergarten; jail/correctional education; medical homebound students; Learning Centers Tier II; McKinney-Vento for students experiencing homelessness; social workers; and special education homebound students.

The new Pupil Services division of WCPS would oversee alternative/non-traditional education; the WCPS Admissions Team; Section 504; afterschool programs (3-5 p.m or 4-6 p.m.); the Individual Student Alternative Education Plan (ISAEP) program; administrative homebound; Apex Learning; and Brighter Futures.

Ballenger explained there will be Tier II Learning Centers in place at each WCPS elementary school for the next school year.

“It’s to help students who are unregulated in the regular ed classroom,” he said. “Instead of removing them and sending them home, they will be able to enter the center to re-regulate and then return back to learn.” 

There is a learning center now at E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School that has been “a great success,” said the superintendent.

In another action item approved by the School Board, WCPS Assistant Superintendent of Administration George “Buck” Smith (above at podium) presented details to Ballenger (far left) and School Board members (left to right) Lo, Funk, Rinaldi, and Salins about the School Bus Driver Incentive Grant Program. 

Smith explained that Virginia approved the use of state activities funds from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, as well as from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund for a school bus driver recruitment and retention incentive grant program. Both funds were authorized in 2021 under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

In Virginia, to help address the critical shortage of school bus drivers, the State Department of Education awarded over $2 million in grants to school divisions for bus driver recruitment and retention strategies. Warren County was awarded $13,682.33, said Smith, who noted that the WCPS Transportation Department wants to use the funds based upon attendance for the 2022-23 school year.

According to Smith, the Transportation Department last year had five contracted bus drivers who missed less than one day of work, while 12 contracted bus drivers missed four or less days of work. 

Under the approved program, WCPS will award a one-time $1,000 gross incentive to those contracted bus drivers who missed less than one day and a one-time $500 gross incentive to those contracted bus drivers who missed one to four days of work. 

The gross total for the incentive would be $11,000, with the additional $841.50 representing the FICA that WCPS is required to pay, Smith said, and the incentive will be paid out as part of the June 30 payroll. 

“The $11,841.50 would come at no cost to Warren County Public Schools as it is covered within the grant,” said Smith.

Among other actions, the School Board also unanimously approved the following:

• Authorizing WCPS to dispose of nine vehicles through sealed bids. The vehicles have outlived their usage, Smith said.
• The 2023-2024 health, vision, and dental insurance rates. There was a 6.2 percent increase in premiums from Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield that WCPS will absorb, ensuring that employee premiums will remain the same in the 2023-2024 school year as they were in the 2022-2023 school year.
• Spending $19,684 to renew Frontline Education, the WCPS professional development management system that houses the school division’s professional development offerings and keeps track of professional development points toward license renewal. 
• Using $18,585 in funds from the WCPS Food Service Fund to replace the broken combination steamer/oven at Hilda J. Barbour Elementary School and to award the contract to MTS Equipment in Winchester, Va.    
• Authorizing the superintendent to request that the Warren County Board of Supervisors appropriate $28,000 from the amount withheld for the 2023 Operational Budget of $1,215,459 to the school division’s Capital Improvement fund for the A&E fees for converting the existing auditorium/multipurpose room at E. Wilson Morrison Elementary School into a gymnasium and to approve the contract for the job to ZMM Inc. of Blacksburg, Va.
• Purchasing 29 interactive boards from CDW Government for all classrooms at Leslie Fox Keyser (LFK) Elementary School for a total cost of $91,582. The funding will be paid out of the technology portion of the LFK construction project budget.
• Spending $33,247 to repair the gym floor at Warren County Middle School and approving the contract with ProSource Inc. Funding will be covered by insurance.
• The revised attendance policy for WCPS addresses student attendance and school attendance procedures. The final draft is available here: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/warren/Board.nsf/files/CSEHLG4902F7/$file/WCPS%20Attendance%20Policy_June%207%202023.pdf.
• The Title I-A, II-A, III-A, and IV-A applications seek federal funding to improve basic instructional programs, teacher and principal training and recruiting, support for language instruction for English Learners, and increase the division’s capacity to provide all students with access to well-rounded education. The grant applications will now be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education for approval.

To watch the School Board meeting in its entirety, go to: https://wcps.new.swagit.com/videos/234392.