School district to reduce SpED staff

Looking ahead a few months, Weiser’s School District believes the Special Education Department is going to see around 80 fewer students in need of services.

 During the April monthly WSD Trustees meeting, the board voted to implement a reduction in force policy for the department.

 “Clearly, we have about 80 students fewer than we did three to four years ago, and to justify seven teachers in that (department) is probably not in the best interest of the district,” Superintendent Dave Kerby told the board. “We met with all of the Special Education teachers a couple of weeks back to explain where we are, and to let them know this may be coming, if the board moves in this direction.

 “I guess there’s a possibility one or two teachers might make other plans or considerations, but no one has come to me on that,” he said. “You have a reduction in force policy, so I’m going to recommend you charge with enforcing it. Not that I look forward to that job, but I will do as the board directs.”

 Kerby said he had spent time with the school administrators looking at the rubric, or scoring guide for teacher evaluations, and what was attached to the policy is outdated.

 “I talked with Bret Walters, our legal counsel for the District, because this is something we don’t want to get wrong,” Kerby said. 

 Going on Walters recommendation to check the negotiated agreement with the teachers union, Kerby said there isn’t a reduction in force agreement with the union.

 “Therefore, it’s up to the board to determine that rubric and what is put in place in order to do this,” he said. “So, we updated what we have, and talked with the administrators and Angie (Halvorson) tried to figure out how to best make a measurement by which you’re going to keep your strongest teachers.”

 Halvorson, WSD’s current SpED Director, pointed out that she has included the current counts of children served in her monthly board reports.

 “Part of my responsibility as the SpED director is to keep track of our child count, how many children we are serving,” she said. “I’ve been keeping you abreast of the fact that our count is continuing to reduce, and that at some point there will be some conversations that will need to be had.

 “Mr. Kerby did cite the numbers earlier just so everybody knows, we’re anticipating about 141 students next year in K-12 in our district for SpED services,” she said. “Actually, down a little bit from that with some students who recently exited, so while our student count right now is about 170, We’ll have kids graduating and exiting.”

 Halvorson said they are anticipating at least 16 children next year in preschool.

 “We haven’t been that high since even before Covid,” she said. “So, that’s good for us to have that many kids coming in and receiving services, and parents aware of what we’re able to offer. But, in terms of school age services, K-12, we are much smaller than we have been in the past.”

 Members of the board didn’t appear to relish the action anymore than Kerby. Trustee Jonathan Lerew offered a motion, with Melanie Price submitting a second, and all voted in favor.