WOBURN - Schools Supt. Dr. Carl Batchelder called for a complete overhaul of elementary guidance services in order to address a growing difficulty with meeting the needs of disruptive young pupils.

Issuing the recommendation to the School Committee this week, the Superintendent advocated for hiring two full-time social workers, who would meet with identified students on an as-needed basis.

The funding for the position would be paid for by rolling over the salary of the existing elementary school level guidance counselor, who is retiring.

"The elementary administration, Assistant Superintendent, Special Education Director, and I are recommending that the current elementary counselor position be reorganized," Batchelder informed the educational board.

"Through a retirement in February, two social workers will be able to be hired to provide assistance in this area of growing concern," the district's top administrator added.

According to Batchelder, over the past half-dozen years, elementary school teachers and administrators have struggled with a new phenomenon in their classrooms: a small number of children who exhibit extremely disruptive behavior.

In addition, a number of other children have been identified who appear to be "near crisis," a term described as meaning that the pupils were going through a variety of experiences that threatened their well-being and future education.

"These tend to be young children in the early years of elementary school, believe it or not. And we just don't have the resources to deal with these situations," the Superintendent explained.

"This is not primarily a special education issue. We have school psychologists who are directed to work with specific kids because their IEPs [Individual Education Plans] call for that," elaborated Batchelder.

The two new social workers would require at least a master's degree in their related field and must have clinical experience working with children as well as within school systems.

The new hires would also need to have a background in applied behavior analysis and behavioral supports and knowledge of school-based social-emotional learning systems.

A preliminary job description would also have the social workers responsible for the following duties:

* Develop strategies to meet the educational, social, and emotional needs of at risk students;

* Work with families in crisis or at risk to improve school success;

* Provide short-term individual and/or group counseling to students;

* Act as a liaison between schools, hospitals and other outside agencies;

* Develop and implement behavioral and educational programs designed to meet student and/or classroom needs;

* Support district efforts to identify and implement programs in the area of social-emotional learning.

According to School Committee member Dr. John Wells, while he fully supported the change, he did have some concerns about the specific services the general elementary school population would lose.

Specifically, the School Committee veteran recalled that the elementary guidance counselor used to visit his children's classrooms to speak about bullying, a topic that has received much attention in recent months.

"So we're going to do that somewhere else right?" Wells asked.

"We talked about taking a more systematized approach to that so we're addressing that issue from pre-K to 12," Batchelder responded.

"So they'll be getting that reinforcement from day one rather than have a guidance counselor come in once every other week," Wells reiterated, feeling satisfied with that more comprehensive way of tackling bullying.