Riverton School Board Votes to Hire SASED Staff
by Tom Mulligan
The Riverton School Board recently voted to hire all of the current special education teachers and teacher aides from SASED next school year. Our district, along with 11 other school districts (Williamsville, Plains, Auburn, etc.), is part of a special education cooperative, SASED. For years, the cooperative has hired all teachers and teacher aides and then placed them in the member school districts. SASED recently changed the rules that govern how the cooperative is run. One change now allows school districts to remain a part of the cooperative, but to transfer the current teachers that are placed from SASED to Riverton employees. There are several advantages for the district making this decision but the two main reasons are below:
- One Team- The first advantage is so all of the staff members working with our students are part of one cohesive team. We have always worked hard to be sure that the SASED employees were integrated into the district and part of our team but regardless of how you looked at it they were still employees somewhere else working on a different contract and sometimes different expectations.
- Hiring the Best – There are a lot of factors that contribute to student learning but the single most important factor is the quality of teachers you have in the classroom. We have great special education staff currently working in our schools but over the years, we have lost a lot of great teachers because they left to make more money elsewhere. Our school district pays teachers at a higher rate than SASED does. This fact alone will allow us be even more competitive in keeping our great teachers and also in attracting the “best” special education teachers to the Riverton School District when we have openings in the future.
There really should be minimal changes noticed by students and parents in the district. The only difference will be better culture in the buildings and improved learning for students!
