Board approves pay differential and new positions for alternative program amid influx of special-education students

The Waunakee School District board on Aug. 11 approved a pay differential for paraprofessionals assigned to the district’s alternative site and authorized hiring additional staff to serve 21 incoming students with special-education needs.

Tiffany, who presented the staffing request, said the alternative setting requires a different daily structure and additional training: staff will administer medication when needed, take working lunches with students, and be district drivers because students will attend some physical-education classes off-site. Tiffany said the district is starting with a teacher and two paraprofessionals and that the roles include requirements not typically part of other paraprofessional positions.

Tiffany told the board that of the 21 incoming resident students, about seven require one-to-one support throughout the day and roughly 10 have speech-and-language needs that add workload to the speech-language pathologist caseload. Board members asked about funding and the process if enrollment later declines; district staff explained that the transfer-of-service funding level increases and does not automatically disappear if a student later leaves, and certified staff have contract-renewal protections while paras are at-will hourly employees.

The board approved the pay differential and the requested positions by voice vote. Tiffany said the district currently has one paraprofessional interested and will continue hiring from internal pools and the intermediate school staff familiar with the students.

Quotes: Tiffany: “they will be eating lunch with kids because they won't necessarily have that separate time in their day.” Tiffany: “10 of the students that came in have speech and language needs.”

Next steps: staff will finalize hires and reallocate speech-pathology caseloads as needed to keep caseloads manageable and report staffing updates to the board.