With the 2020-2021 school year fast approaching, the Pine Bush Central School District Board of Education is busy planning the instructional budget for the upcoming school year. Initial recommendations were made at the Board of Education meeting on Feb. 25.

To determine potential needs for next year, Superintendent of Schools Tim Mains, Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael Pacella as well as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Dignity for All Students Act Coordinator, Donna Geidel, met with department heads and principals of each school in the district.

One initial special education recommendation included the creation of a kindergarten ABLE (Actively Building Language Environment) class at Circleville Elementary School. This would allow for four to six students to remain in the district instead of attending Orange-Ulster BOCES, saving Pine Bush $460,000. Mains, Pacella and Geidel’s special education recommendations also called for the addition of one special education teacher and two teaching assistants at Circleville Elementary School to staff the new ABLE class, which would cost the district $151,730.

The board members also suggested adding a special education teacher at Pine Bush High School to support special education needs in math and science classes. In addition, they recommended that a special education summer program be added for the Pine Bush Elementary School Collaborative Academic Social Emotional Teaching and Learning Environment (CASTLE) class. Counseling services are suggested for ABLE Summer Programs at Circleville Elementary School.

Pine Bush is thinking about adding a social worker so that each elementary school in the district would have a full-time social worker.

“We’ve seen the mental health needs and behavioral needs at our elementary level and we have been able to hire some dynamite social workers that are really supporting our students,” Geidel said.

They discussed hiring a part-time occupational therapist to support a new ABLE class at Circleville Elementary School. Geidel recommended having two behavioral teacher aides to work with the Board Certified Behavior Analyst, one elementary and one secondary. She also suggested adding professional services for Medicaid billing.

At this time Geidel advocated for a full-time elementary school music teacher to support general music, chorus and band caseloads at Pakanasink and Circleville Elementary Schools.

“We have a very talented teacher down at Pakanasink, god bless her Paula Orcutt, does chorus, band and general music. So she’s quite a busy lady...,” Geidel said. “Her schedule over the years has been just jam-packed with trying to teach general music and get all those lessons in and do the chorus and band.”

The board plans to hire two middle school Spanish teachers for the upcoming school year. One would be assigned to each school. This is already included in the rollover budget. Geidel also proposed a Future Farmers of America Club and hiring an English as a New Language teacher at Crispell Middle School.

The high school might receive a full-time teacher to support the development of a Career Technical Education Program. Geidel suggested hiring a part-time music teacher, who would help teach additional classes. The board also proposed to increase the budget for High School Summer Academies by $16,000.

The lone district recommendation regarded adding a single sign on software so that students do not have to log in to every program that they use. Geidel noted that this often takes up valuable class time.

“For a cost of $15,000, every student Pre-K through 12 would benefit from this software,” Geidel said. “It would particularly make it much easier for elementary students to access the internet because as you can imagine passwords and ID names are not easy for them.”

The recommendations that Geidel made on Feb. 25 added up to $460,816. The Special Education Department suggestions would cost $106,799, while the elementary and middle school recommendations would total $94,140 and $96,585 respectively. The high school instructional changes would be the most expensive, costing $148,292 and the district recommendation would cost a measly $15,000. The board is still in the process of deciding these recommendations but hopes they will benefit each student.

“Our commitment is to build a budget that educates the whole child,” Geidel noted on the final slide of her presentation.