College board to host particular session on staffing points | Schooling
The Frederick County Board of Education will host a public working session on Monday to discuss staff shortages across the system and the impact it is having on students and staff.
Board member Liz Barrett started the discussion at the beginning of the meeting on Wednesday and originally asked her colleagues to put her on the agenda for that evening.
What followed was a brief back-and-forth over on-board procedures and scheduling, with several members opting for a separate meeting to address the issue. Barrett responded with obvious frustration.
“The roof is on fire right now,” she says. “I don’t know how to make this any more clear.”
Eventually, all seven board members except Barrett and David Bass voted to approve Wednesday’s agenda without the additional discussion item.
Human resource issues plagued FCPS and school systems across the country during the return to face-to-face learning. It has led to low morale among the staff who show up, Barrett argued.
During her comments at the end of the meeting, Barrett read an email she had received from an FCPS instructor. The teacher described a classroom full of students with different needs – some with disabilities, some studying English, others having problems with math.
The teacher had an interventionist assigned to assist these students, but they were constantly being dragged out of the classroom to subtract, the email said. The teacher described feeling “crushed” watching students struggle on the quarterly tests because they had not received adequate support.
Barrett said it was “urgent” to gather input from systems workers on possible solutions to workforce problems. She asked FCPS superintendent Terry Alban to organize contact with teachers, administrators, food service workers, bus drivers and more in the coming days, and asked what the board of directors could do to support them.
“I’d just love to see the community get involved now,” she said.
The meeting will take place on Monday at 6:00 p.m. in the boardroom on East St. 191. Parishioners are invited to make public comments.
