Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – While questions still remain, the Warren County School District Curriculum, Instruction and Technology committee received enough answers during Monday’s meeting to move the issue of therapy dogs to the full board.
Committee members Jeff Dougherty and Mary Passinger, and chair Joe Colosimo agreed, following a lengthy discussion, that enough questions had been answered to put the matter to the full Board of Directors during the April 11 meeting. Dougherty agreed to move the item forward despite reservations about the timing of bringing dogs into the district.
The committee was reintroduced to the idea of purchasing therapy and facility dogs in January. During February’s committee meetings, Dougherty raised questions about the long-term costs for the dogs, whether they would be in district buildings year-round, and how having dogs would impact the staff members assigned to be their handlers.
“To me, it’s just a timing issue,” Dougherty said. “I support the program. I love the program. I do, I just think it’s not the correct time to be talking about putting dogs in the school right now.”
Dr. Patricia Mead, WCSD Director of Pupil Services, countered that “timing is of the essence,” in part, because the upfront cost, approximately $5,863 for two dogs, is one the district might never see again.
“I feel like it is good timing because in our work of exploring the cost of purchasing a dog, we have not come close to this expense anywhere,” Mead said. “So if we revisit this in three, six, nine years, we’re going to be having a different conversation.”
Mead added that two local vets offered pro bono care for the dogs, and another donor has offered to provide food for the dogs.
Aside from costs, Dougherty’s other major concern centered around how adding a dog would impact the workload of the staff members assigned as handlers. One of the dogs, Mead said, would be assigned to a special education supervisor, the other to an occupational therapist.
“To me, it’s very glaringly obvious that there’s a lot of people around this room who are doing a lot more with less,” Dougherty said. “And my concern is we’re going to add another element to doing even more with even less and where’s that fine line come in? Where do we need to start looking at taking some of this responsibility away from those supervisors, administrators and giving them the tools to help them do what they need to do in their current settings?”
Because these would be facility dogs, Mead said, their handlers wouldn’t have to spend much additional time out of their day with the dogs.
“This handler does not have to be present with the dog walking the dog around and making sure that the dog is sitting where it needs to be,” Mead said.
Passinger said given the current price, and the amount of emotional and mental trauma students and staff have faced not just with the sudden loss of two students and two teachers this academic year, but with all the things associated with the pandemic as well, now is the right time to add therapy dogs to the district.
“I’ve been trying for several years to get us to do this,” Passinger said. “I think the fact that we’ve got the vets that are on board and volunteering the dog food that’s not going to cost us. I think now is the time with all of the stuff going on in this world if we can find something that will help even 20 kids for that amount of money. We owe it to those kids to do it.”
In a survey, the district found that 92 percent of students and staff agreed that the use of dogs would “contribute to the development of social interaction with students,” and 90 percent agreed that dogs would “positively influence the school climate.”
Superintendent Amy Stewart said as long as the district sets up the agreement in such a way that there’s a way out, giving the dogs a try is pretty “low risk.”
“It’s kind of low risk in,” Stewart said. “And as long as we have the ability to get out, which we make sure (Solicitor) Chris (Byham) gives us that net to get back out if that’s what we need to do. We can set up an eval in those schools and really bring it to you and show you this is what it’s doing and what it’s not. That’s how I look at it right now. And I would really like to give it a whirl.”
