Wareham Public Schools will have a new Director of Special Education this fall.

Beverly Shea, currently the director of Pupil Personnel Services at Hanover Public Schools, will take the position as of an announcement made at a special School Committee meeting Wednesday night. Shea has over 10 years of experience as a school administrator.

Committee Chairman Geoff Swett said he is looking forward to Shea filling the position, which he said Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood had narrowed from a broader role as director of Student Services.

“The superintendent feels it deserves a very focused, experienced person to make sure outstanding services are being provided, and they are being provided effectively,” Swett said.

Shaver-Hood said there were initially 15 or 16 applicants, whom a committee narrowed down to two for her to interview. Of those two, she said Shea stood out.

“She has so much expertise that she would add to our district in collaboration with our staff,” Shaver-Hood said. “Her experience, the way she approaches situations, her collaborative nature, and her willingness to dig in and get the job done.”

Shaver-Hood also took economy and efficiency into consideration, when hiring Shea. Swett explained that children with special education needs require extra measures to ensure they are receiving the same quality of education as their peers, and their education must specifically be tailored to them.

Swett said there are four different kinds of special education student needs, from extra help in the classroom, to living at a school that provides special education. Even with state aid, which the district will receive once it spends on a special needs child four times the average foundation cost of a student without special needs, providing special education is expensive.

“It’s a very expensive proposition, but the main thing is that millions of dollars have to be managed,” Swett said. “We think Beverly Shea is the person to do that.”

Swett said 22 percent of Wareham students, about 600 students in total, fall under the special needs umbrella.

Shea declined to comment on her new position, save to say she would be starting in the fall.

Swett said Shea would be taking a pay cut of $13,000, from her salary at Hanover Public Schools of $133,000 per year to $120,000 per year, because she would have a slightly reduced range of responsibilities.

“She expressed a great deal of support for what [Shaver-Hood] is trying to do, and what the organization is trying to do to achieve these goals,” Swett said.