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Show School district reconsiders cutbacks By DONETA GATHERUM FARMINGTON - It was a good news, bad news day for Davis County School District Itinerant personnel last Tuesday evening when the bi-monthly meeting of the Board of Education was held. Associate Supt. Gayle Stevenson announced the good news first-9.5 . social workers, one psychologist1 and one communicative disorder additional years as well as a two year continuation of insurance benefits. be-nefits. Mr. Stevenson said that four of the RIF employees had been given working contracts in areas other than Special Education and that efforts had been made to place others or to help the individuals re-locate in positions outside the district. Because of the legal require ments, it was necessary to send out RIF letters a month ago and it appeared at the time that the cuts in the itinerant work force would be the only major cuts made for the 1986-87 school year. Now that estimates esti-mates about cost savings have been made in other areas and some programs have been identified for cuts, it is possible to re-think the Special Education-itinerant workers work-ers budget. specialist would be rehired. The bad news was that there would be some reduction in the itinerant staff and 20 people who have previously pre-viously been working in this field related to education would not be hired. It was nearly a month ago that the announcement was made through Reduction in Force letters that 31.5 social workers, psychologists psycho-logists and communicative disorder dis-order specialists would not be employed em-ployed in Davis School District for the 1986-87 school year. The measure mea-sure was believed necessary be- 1 cause of strict budget limitations that have had profound effect in the special education area. At Board meetings and public hearings, parents and school social workers assisted by the DEA protested pro-tested this cost-saving measure. Because of this public input, the District administration has looked at alternative cost-saving programs prog-rams and the result is that 11.5 itinerant members of the staff will be rehired. Mr. Stevenson noted each social worker rehired will need to be cross-trained as a designated psychological examiner. He also stated three psychologists and one communicative disorder specialist have been rehired in the regular classroom. Another positive note that may help the special education program is that the Utah State Legislative Interim study committee will address funding of special education. educa-tion. While this study won't help for the 1986-87 school year, it might eventually mean that state legislature will support the needs of special education more adequ-' ately. In order to lessen the effects of the reduction in force in the special education department, the school district will offer a one-year only early retirement incentive prog-' prog-' ram. About 275 individuals could be eligible for these benefits. The present plan offers three years of stripends and continuation of insurance in-surance benefits to those employees em-ployees who: 1 . are 62, 63, 64 years of age by Sept. 1 ; 2. Have 30 years of service as defined by the Utah State Retirement System; 3. Are 60 years of age and who otherwise would qualify for retirement as defined de-fined by the Utah State Retirement System. The stipends are 17 percent of final salary for first year; 15 percent per-cent of final salary for second year and 13 percent of final salary for third year. For this year only and only in the Special Education Department, De-partment, those who desire to retire re-tire early and can qualify will receive re-ceive an extension of the third year stipend allowance (13) for two |