Residents, educators urge Craven County Board to preserve instructional coaches, counselors and special-education services

Seventeen community members, principals and classroom teachers told the Craven County Board of Education on March 20 that planned budget reductions risked undermining student supports that they called essential to classroom learning.

Speakers at the New Bern meeting pressed the board to prioritize instructional coaches, assistant principals, counselors, nurses, social workers and exceptional-children (EC) staff when it finalizes next year’s budget. Several asked the board to seek additional funding from Craven County commissioners and state lawmakers instead of cutting positions.

Instructional coaches were a repeated focus. Molly Strawbridge, a fourth-grade teacher at Bangor Elementary School, said coaches provide “hands-on support” and model lessons for beginning teachers. “Instructional coaches are not an extra expense. They are an investment in the success of our students and in our schools,” she said. Sarah Weems, also a Bangor fourth-grade teacher, told the board coaches provide “targeted in-the-moment…