A move Wednesday by the Poplar Bluff R-I Board of Education will help ensure middle school students with the greatest need receive extra help in core subjects.
The district is creating two new interventionists positions at the middle school level, Dr. Scott Dill, superintendent, said after a special board meeting. The new staff members will start in the fall of 2021.
Interventionists work in small groups with students who are struggling the most in subjects like reading and math.
“The additional personnel is going to significantly increase the number of minutes students are served each week,” Dill explained. “We take a deep dive with those students to ensure they are achieving at the same high level we expect for all our students.”
The new positions carry a base salary and benefits package of $55,000 each, but this will be covered by federal Title 1 money, Dill said.
The district was in the last year able to shift the cost of certain early childhood salaries from the federal program to a state program. This was because of changes from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education relating to average daily attendance, he said.
The change freed up federal funds for the middle school positions.
The middle school serves approximately 1,100 students. It currently has two interventionists.
The special board meeting was needed, Dill said, because the district is conducting interviews this week for other positions.
As soon as the need and funding mechanism were identified earlier this week, the administration determined it would be best to be able to consider the current group of candidates for any positions that need to be filled because of this change, he said.
“It’s all about moving quickly to ensure we can hire the best quality people from this first round of interviews,” Dill said, previously explaining, “We know if the students can master those essentials, foundational building blocks, they can be successful in the other areas of the curriculum.”