Educators and parents urge Northshore School Board to reconsider cuts to deans and Math 8

At a March 10 study session of the Northshore School District Board of Directors, multiple teachers, union leaders and parents urged the board to withdraw or rethink proposed staffing reductions that would eliminate deans of students and remove Math 8 from the secondary course offerings.

The speakers said the proposed reductions, raised as part of the district's ongoing budget discussions, would remove staff who provide daily student supports and would accelerate middle-school math so students who need extra time could be moved into Algebra 1 before they are ready.

Those concerns were repeated across more than a half-dozen public comments during the board's allotted association and public comment period. Lauren Dandridge, certificated vice president of the North Shore Education Association, said educators already have accepted contract concessions and urged the board to find savings elsewhere: "If central office administrators, all of whom already earn over a hundred and $50,000 per year and most of whom earn over $200,000 per year, forego an inflationary increase ...…