Teachers and service staff press board on staffing, discipline, PD and safety

Representatives from the district's faculty senates and service personnel used the April 21 meeting to press the Board of Education and superintendent on staffing, student behavior, professional development and safety concerns across Berkeley County Schools.

Kelsey Strelick, primary faculty senate president and an elementary teacher, told the board the group's meeting with senior staff highlighted successes such as KinderCam and MacBook access but also raised sustained concerns: reduced Title I interventionists, cuts to pre-K ECAT aid, losses of gifted-program positions, and growing student mental-health needs. "We need our professional experience to be trusted, we need our time to manage it all, and we need our instructional teammates," Strelick said.

Faculty representatives said the district's move to reduce interventionists and certain support roles is creating a "triage" system that leaves students with minor gaps without support and puts extra burden on classroom teachers. They urged the district to consider alternatives to blanket, countywide professional development sessions and asked for more differentiated, school- and content-specific training.

Board members and Superintendent Saxon acknowledged the concerns and said the district is working on strategic planning to blend districtwide and school-based professional learning, to grow teacher leaders and to support implementation and coaching.

Service personnel and bus aides raised extensive concerns about safety, training and staffing. A representative for service personnel described incidents where classroom aides and bus staff have been injured while attempting to manage student behavior and asked for clearer training and de-escalation strategies for staff working in constrained environments such as buses. "They want training and they want to be taken seriously. They don't want to be put in a position where they feel they're going to be injured," the service-personnel speaker said.

Meeting presenters detailed several practical problems: shortage of substitutes, reassignments tied to pre-K and school consolidations, chronic truancy patterns requiring community solutions, and overcrowding at specific schools that contributes to traffic and safety risks at arrival and dismissal. Hedgesville and Spring Mills middle schools were cited for acute overcrowding that affects classroom conditions and parent pickup safety.

On disciplinary matters, representatives asked the district to revisit the discipline matrix to differentiate consequences for primary, intermediate and middle-school students and to add supports such as cessation programs for vaping-related incidents. Board members indicated they would reconvene the discipline committee and asked administration to look into clearer parent-accountability measures.

Superintendent Sachs and other administrators responded on multiple fronts: they noted the board had maintained a housing stipend in recent negotiations to help retain staff and said some grant-funded positions are inherently time-limited. Sachs said the district will work with teacher leaders and principals to redesign professional development opportunities and to ensure consistent implementation of behavioral supports.

The board thanked faculty senate representatives and service staff for specific solution ideas and asked administration to return with more precise plans for training, staffing priorities and safety interventions.