Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Staffing Reallocation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Special School District outlines reallocation of special-education staff to address inequitable staffing
Summary
Deputy Superintendent Kelly Grigsby told the Special School District Governing Council the district will reduce selected vacant positions and reallocate teachers to lower-vacancy partner districts to address inequitable distribution of special-education teachers while trying to limit impact on services.
Deputy Superintendent Kelly Grigsby told the Special School District of St. Louis County Governing Council that the district will reduce selected vacant positions and reallocate staff to address long-running inequities in special-education teacher distribution and to respond to a wider teacher shortage.
Grigsby said the district plans to reduce 101 vacant teacher positions, 60 vacant paraprofessional positions and 29 speech-language positions in fiscal year 2026 and to reallocate 36 teachers to seven partner districts that have vacancy rates above the district average. "Equity is the core value of our district," Grigsby said, and the changes aim to ensure students countywide "have a certified teacher providing them services, regardless of where they live in St. Louis County."
The nut graf: The presentation laid out the district's method for deciding reductions and reallocations, the timeline for implementing them and the supports the district plans to provide so schools receiving reallocated staff can begin the school year with fewer vacancies.
Grigsby described the data-based process. The district froze staffing for a snapshot on Dec. 31 to measure vacancies, then calculated partner-district vacancy rates and allocated reassignments to districts with rates higher than the district average. She said the district-wide vacancy rate was about 9% on Jan. 1 and that, after the planned reductions, the district-wide rate would fall to about 5.8%. She said four partner districts had no special-education teacher reductions because they lacked vacancies; other districts with higher vacancy rates will receive reallocated staff.
On implementation, Grigsby said the first step is reallocating experienced teachers into high-need districts — the 36 teachers being reallocated should all have at least one year of experience because of a hiring pause. Hires going forward will be placed by rolling vacancy-rate rankings: newly hired special-education teachers will be assigned to partner districts with the highest current vacancy rates until those needs are met.
She described an involuntary-transfer process negotiated with the union: volunteers are asked first; volunteers with higher seniority get first choice among receiving districts. If insufficient volunteers exist, the district considers certification and program needs, preserving specialized placements (for example, a teacher in a self-contained autism classroom) where necessary. "Volunteers will make their volunteering known by the end of this week," Grigsby said.
Grigsby said other strategies include revamping hiring, exploring international teacher partnerships and strengthening retention through pay, benefits, professional development and resources. She noted paraprofessional reallocations will follow with a similar process in February and that speech-language reductions will occur through attrition.
Board members asked for clear documentation of the process for public and partner-district explanation; Grigsby said the district has written procedures and will meet with administrators on Jan. 22 to launch the rolling hiring process.
Ending: Grigsby repeated the guiding priority: "All of our students deserve access to certified teachers," and said the district will continue to review reallocations annually rather than treating this as a one-time change.
