EASD: District Saves $300K by Bringing Special Education Life Skills Training In-House

Posted by: Noël Jones


Finally, what appears to be completely positive news and good decision-making on the part of the Easton Area School District. According to Colin McEvoy's article for the Express-Times, the district special education life skill's class, which has previously been provided through Northampton County's Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, will be brought in-house, and save the district $300,000 dollars annually. Why, in the midst of the budget crisis of the last two years, this solution was never proposed before, when 215 teachers were being threatened with firing, is a mystery, but I appreciate the efforts of Special Education Director, Andria Deatline-Buchman, to spearhead a solution now that not only saves the district hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, but actually serves to integrate special education students with the general student population.


I remember at a budget meeting earlier this year, noticing that IU 20 seemed to have a budget line item in several different departments--one being a $10,000 annually fee that the technology department was paying for training that wasn't even happening. Tom Drago, head of the Technology Department, brought up this discrepancy during the budget meeting, and mysteriously Superintendent Sue McGinley received an email from IU 20 before the meeting was over, saying that the charge had been eliminated.


I would love to see a thorough examination by the school board and our administrators of all line items for IU 20 to determine whether other cuts could be made to save taxpayer dollars, and continue to improve education, as Deatline-Buchman's initiative has.