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Administrators present prioritized staff requests as district prepares 2025–26 budget
Summary
District administrators presented a list of critical, immediate and strategic staffing needs — from a director of instruction and bilingual social worker to additional special education teachers and a CTE teacher — and asked the board and finance committee to rank and consider the requests in the April budget process.
District administration presented a prioritized list of certified and classified position requests the board should consider for the 2025–26 budget.
Administration framed the requests in three tiers: critical needs, immediate needs and longer-term strategic needs. Critical needs the administration flagged for next-year budgeting included a director of instruction (to consolidate curriculum, assessment, professional development and instructional coaching duties), a bilingual social worker (to serve increasing English‑learner and newcomer populations), an additional special-education teacher at Teton Middle School, an increase at Driggs Elementary from 2.5 to 3 special-education teachers to serve preschool and incoming caseloads, and a full‑time career and technical education (CTE) teacher shared between Teton High School and Teton Middle School.
Immediate needs included an EL/instructional coach to support Teton Online School (TOS) students and an academic dean at Teton High School. Strategic requests included instructional coaches at K–3, 4–8 and 9–12 levels, a full-time community relations coordinator and converting Tetonia Elementary’s 0.5 administrator/0.5 teacher allocation into a full-time administrator.
Administrators said the director-of-instruction role would free building administrators from districtwide curriculum and assessment tasks and allow coordinated, sustained instructional coaching and professional development. They also said the bilingual social-worker role would address complex social‑emotional and trauma-related needs among newcomer and Spanish‑speaking families and that special-education increases reflect rising caseloads from preschool programs.
Board members asked for a ranked list and for dollar estimates of FTE costs so the finance committee can evaluate tradeoffs; administrators said they will provide class‑size data, model costs and ask the finance committee to prioritize requests during April budget discussions. No hiring decisions or budget approvals were made at the meeting.
Administrators emphasized many of the proposals were driven by student numbers (enrollment, EL and special-education caseloads), and they cautioned the board that staffing requests would depend on final state allocations and pending state policy changes affecting salary schedules.
The board directed staff to return costed, ranked options for the finance committee and to supply class-size breakdowns for each school.
