The Glynn Count Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a contract for a new provider of learning and therapeutic services for students with severe emotional and behavioral challenges.
Specialized Education Services, Inc., (SESI) will begin providing therapeutic educational services to students with significant emotional behavior disorders next year.
These services will replace the state’s GNETS (Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support) program operated at Coastal Academy in Glynn County.
The state provided the GNETS model, which has received criticism and for which the state was sued in 2016 by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ claimed the GNETS program failed to provide equal education to its students and violated their civil rights.
The state plans to cut funding for GNETS program, prompting local districts to find new ways to serve these students.
Valerie Whitehead, chief of school improvement for Glynn County Schools, said she feels SESI’s services are the best option moving forward for this group of students.
“That includes additional personnel, particularly trained behavior specialists, an academic coordinator for their site to make sure that academics are part of the programming there that are at a level that students can transition back to our schools well when they’re ready for that,” she said. “We’ll have an additional two paraprofessionals with that contract, and that would be in addition to what we’ve had offered thus far with GNETS.”
SESI’s services will cost $1,444,926, which will be paid through state funding in fiscal year 2024.
In other business, the board approved:
• Renewing the annual maintenance and support agreement with Adapt To Solve, which maintains the district’s security cameras and card readers, for $116,549.
• Increasing paid student lunch prices from $2.50 to $2.75 and staff lunch prices from $4 to $4.50.
• Renewing the purchase of the Edgenuity platform for the 2023-2024 school year.
• Purchasing new weight room equipment for Brunswick High for $67,134.
• Paying a guaranteed maximum price of $1,540,966 for Pope Construction to begin site work at Satilla Marsh Elementary.
• Spending $977,173 for R.H. Tyson Construction to begin work on the Egmont Street parking lot.