Board approves additional counselors and coordinators; special‑education resource room gaps and cheer coach vacancy remain

The Spring Valley Board of Education approved multiple staffing items at Wednesday’s meeting including additional school counselors and newly budgeted coordinator posts, but members pressed district leaders about remaining vacancies for special‑education resource‑room staff and an unfilled cheerleading coach position. Board members asked where counselor and coordinator positions came from and whether they were budgeted. District administrators told the board the increases were included in the budget: the district planned to grow by one counselor at each secondary school and to provide every elementary school with a dedicated counselor instead of splitting one counselor across several buildings. “We budgeted to grow by one additional school counselor at every secondary school, and we budgeted to increase our total number of elementary school counselors so that each building would have a dedicated school counselor,” a district leader said in the meeting. The board was also told that a position title was changed from “dean” to “coordinator” after consultation with union representatives but that the job description and budgetary intent remain. On special education staffing, trustees were told speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy needs for nonpublic placements have providers in place, but resource‑room services remain understaffed in some sites. The district said it continues to post openings and to canvass civil‑service lists and provider leads; staff said providers would contact assigned schools the next day to begin caseload coordination. Trustees also asked about a Spring Valley cheerleading coach. The director of athletics confirmed a posting was active on OLAS and that the district was processing candidates; while student athletes may practice together informally, the director said they should not operate as a full team without an appointed coach and that football coaches had been asked not to supervise cheer practice as a substitute. The district said it would follow up with the board about possible temporary supervision to address liability concerns. Discussion vs. decision: the board voted to approve the personnel agenda items as presented; staffing actions were approvals of budgeted positions rather than new budget allocations. Several discussion points remain open: filling resource‑room positions for nonpublic placements and hiring a cheer coach to supervise student practice. What to watch next: updates on vacancies and confirmations that resource‑room providers have contacted assigned schools, plus any board follow‑up about temporary supervision for the cheerleading team.