Caps committee recommends extra prep and paperwork time for special‑education staff

Members of the CAPS (special‑education) subcommittee presented recommendations Wednesday to address workload and equity concerns for special‑education teachers across the district, and the IBB working group asked administrators to provide additional operational feedback before any policy changes are proposed.

The committee, which included representatives from elementary, middle and high school levels as well as the district’s special‑education director, reported three clusters of proposals it had prioritized after meetings and voting: extending contract days for special‑education staff so they can complete paperwork and training outside regular student contact time; protecting scheduled prep time (including use of Friday collaboration time for paperwork when appropriate); and increasing flexibility so that scheduled paperwork/prep time is available daily or as an agreed schedule at each level.

Committee members said expanded, ongoing paraeducator training and mentor support for new special‑education teachers received strong support. The CAPS group discussed trade‑offs: at the middle school some special‑education teachers previously had two unscheduled periods (one for paperwork and one for prep), which later dropped to one; restoring additional prep time would change class coverage patterns and caseload distributions and could increase class sizes at some periods. The group also discussed a possible approach of front‑loading extra contract days to allow staff to handle paperwork and training without taking time from students.

Administrators and the superintendent advised caution about district costs and implementation logistics and asked for further input from building principals on schedule feasibility. The working group agreed that district staff should solicit additional feedback from building administrators and return to the topic at the next meeting with more details on costs, scheduling impacts and potential training plans.

Next steps: the district will compile administrator feedback and a preliminary implementation/cost estimate; the working group will revisit the CAPS recommendations in a future meeting and consider which provisions might move forward as district practice or negotiated‑agreement language.