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Counselor and teacher urge one-year staffing support at Chief Charlo Elementary to address high special‑education needs
Summary
A school counselor and a classroom teacher asked the Missoula County Public Schools board to approve a one-year, targeted classroom teacher at Chief Charlo Elementary School to stabilize supports for a grade with an unusually high concentration of students with individualized education programs (IEPs).
Rachel Gerhardt, a school counselor, and Susan Ray, a classroom teacher, urged the Missoula County Public Schools Board of Trustees to approve a one-year classroom-teacher investment at Chief Charlo Elementary School to stabilize supports for a single grade in the upcoming year.
Gerhardt said the grade will serve 58 students divided into two classrooms of 29; one class has nine students with IEPs and the other 11, meaning 20 students in that cohort have identified special-education needs. She told the board Chief Charlo is not a Title I school and currently does not have a dedicated social worker or Title I teachers to help close academic gaps. "This is not just a matter of staffing, it's a matter of structure," Gerhardt said, adding that tiered problem-solving meetings (tier 2 and tier 3) have met only three times each this year.
Gerhardt argued the additional teacher should be a strategic, one-year investment to allow…
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