Dad and mom of particular schooling college students involved about paraprofessional scarcity
Newbie Xavier Knott loves going to school at Steamboat Springs High School.
“He’s always the most excited kid in school, and that’s by no means an exaggeration,” said his mother, Ginger Johnston.
Xavier is also on the school’s cross-country team, mountain bike team, and skis at Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. For all of this he needs paraprofessional support from the Yampa Valley Autism Program or school, as he is on the autism spectrum.
“They got to ski with him, learned what he can do, and he got to ski with them, so it was a really symbiotic relationship between the two,” said Johnston.
Parenting a child like Xavier can be challenging at times, and Johnston said it takes a lot of advocacy. She is one of 17 different parents who have reached out to the district leadership in the past few weeks concerned about the lack of special education staff in the district and whether their children are getting the care they need and are legally entitled to.
Steamboat Springs’ Board of Education approved three resignations from special education teachers on Monday. Two are leaving the district on December 17th, one is already gone. Now the district has already dismantled more than six full-time special schools. Many of these openings focus on Steamboat Springs High School, where parents say the situation is nearing crisis levels.
When fully staffed, the district employs the equivalent of 35 1/2 full-time paraprofessionals, and 6 1/2 or about 20% of those are currently open. Of those, 4 1/2 are in high school, according to Katie Jacobs, the district’s human resources director.
On November 23, the parents met with the district leadership to express their concern.
“There’s a different breed of parenting in this room,” Johnston said, referring to the meeting in the basement of the district office. “We work really hard for our children and that is the kind of effort you make to protect our children and give them the education they are legally entitled to.”
Johnston has scheduled a meeting for January to discuss Xavier’s individual curriculum, and she receives quarterly progress reports. This fall’s report showed some regression, but the district has told her that Xavier will receive what is described in his IEP.
Last week, Anne-Marie Williams, the district’s director of exceptional student service, announced to parents that service hours set out in the IEPs would be respected.
“Our answer was, ‘How do you meet them?'” Said Johnston.
At the school committee meeting on Monday, Leighann McLaughlin, substitute special education teacher and parent of a student with special needs at Soda Creek Elementary School, read a statement to the board outlining the situation.
“It is imperative that the administration make more effective efforts to fill these current positions for our students,” said McLaughlin, adding that these students often have no voice and are unable to stand up for themselves.
‘Don’t add up’
An IEP is a legal document that defines a student’s special needs and what is done to support them. You start with an assessment of the student to understand what additional services and teaching strategies the student will need to be successful in class.
IEPs are all different, with some requiring individual care and others not so much, e.g. B. Help with reading and writing. District officials say duty hours for these students are met according to their specific IEPs.
“This is my first question in my position,” said Superintendent Brad Meeks. “Do we follow IEPs? Is what is said in the IEP being respected? And up to this point my understanding is yes, we are. “
For parents who believe their specific IEPs are not being followed, Meeks encouraged them to reach out to case managers and other school staff so they can raise the issue and possibly change IEPs.
Meeks said he couldn’t speak to individual students’ plans.
“If there are some parents who have details on IEPs, they need to reach out to their case manager, the school principal, and (Williams) so we can find out if there are any gaps that are not covered in the IEP, they are and how we do them address, “said Meeks.
Many of the parents, including some who are concerned about speaking in public on the subject, don’t think they know the full story about whether IEPs are being met.
“Some things just didn’t go right,” said Candy Granger, whose son is currently at Steamboat Springs Middle School. “You haven’t brought the staff shortage to the attention of parents of children with special needs, and a lot of our kids like my son – he’s non-verbal – can’t come home and tell me he doesn’t have a teacher.”
Granger is very pleased with the services her son is currently receiving in middle school, but said she is so concerned about the situation at the high school where he would go next year that she is considering withholding him a class.
Her son needs constant supervision and she said she was uncomfortable with the high school staff shortage.
“You have to give my son free and adequate education,” Granger said. “If he was in high school now, that would never happen. … The result would be that I would have to keep him at home. “
“We just don’t have enough subscriptions”
Meeks said the staffing issue is one the district has been dealing with year round and they are not alone. At the beginning of the school year, 36 different positions were advertised. On Thursday it was 22.
The district moves staff between schools on a daily basis and is asking teachers to sacrifice planning time to fill in for absent coworkers, Meeks said.
“We often start our days in the district with short submarines,” Meeks said. “It’s district wide; We just don’t have enough subscriptions. … This is a problem in the whole country. “
Jacobs said the district spends around $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 every two weeks running ads for vacancies on Steamboat Pilot & Today, which also pushes them onto various recruiting websites. There are also other job boards where she posts job vacancies.
The vacancy for Special Education jobs posted in September said the job pays between $ 17.33 and $ 18.06 an hour, depending on experience. The position is entitled to benefits. Meeks said Paras who are already dating the district can make up to $ 26 an hour.
What can be tricky with hiring Paras, Jacobs said, is that they often compete with other hourly local employers like restaurants and the Steamboat Resort.
McLaughlin, the reserve parade, said she will be leaving the district soon to work as a ski instructor simply because it’s better paid.
“I’d love to work full-time at the school, but you know, it’s not worth it for me when I can make twice as much money for five months a year,” said McLaughlin.
Several parents said they would try harder to fill these positions.
But simply offering more money can be difficult, Meeks said, because the district is bargaining collectively with employees and even something as simple as a bonus or payment of a specific position would be more likely to require negotiation. He’s not sure if that would work either.
“If that were all it took to pay a new customer bonus, nobody would have an employment problem,” said Meeks.
“Better sooner than later ‘
The parent group reached out to Matt Cloven, a disability attorney with Peacewolf Advocacy & Consultation based in Fort Collins, and he attended last week’s meeting.
Staff shortages are common in schools across the state, but three teachers are leaving office at around the same time.
“This is unheard of,” said Cloven. “I think you have to look at the reason they just had an exodus.”
What the Paras District pays seems pretty much on par with what Cloven sees across the state, but as someone who grew up locally, he said it doesn’t seem like enough to Steamboat.
On Monday, school board member Lara Craig suggested holding a board workshop to discuss staffing issues, particularly in the special education department. Craig said they need to look at the district budget to find ways to address the issue as soon as possible.
“It was advised by a parent tonight that it was a crisis and I would probably agree,” said Craig. “We have to plan for sooner rather than later.”
Cloven stressed that IEPs are legal agreements and if they are not complied with it is a major civil rights issue. Usually this process starts with a legal complaint. For many of these parents, this is not what they want.
“When you look at the dynamic, that’s a fear and that’s annoying on both sides,” said Cloven. “Is it likely? I do not know. … That’s the thing about the parents of your boys up there, you have strong parents, but they are also ready to help. You are not there for the battle. “
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify that the school provides paraprofessional support when Xavier Knott is running on the Steamboat Springs High School cross country team.
To reach Dylan Anderson call 970-871-4247 or email danderson@SteamboatPilot.com.
