Counselor and teacher urge one-year staffing support at Chief Charlo Elementary to address high special‑education needs

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 time for a new administrator to put systems in place: "With our new administrator coming on board, we have a critical opportunity to reset and rebuild. This additional teacher would give us the capacity to lay the groundwork for long term systems." She said her role as counselor is largely reactive now, spending most of the day managing students in crisis and leaving little time for prevention and Tier 1 social-emotional learning.

Teacher Susan Ray described a recent incident where a student became seriously dysregulated outside a classroom; it took five adults more than 25 minutes to help that child regain control while 44 other students were unable to learn or feel safe. Ray said available supports (behavior interventionists, counselors, speech therapist) required pulling staff from other students and that Chief Charlo lacks a social worker. "Sometimes things need to be equal and sometimes they need to be fair," Ray said, appealing to trustees for a temporary staffing change to meet these students' needs.

Why it matters: Gerhardt and Ray presented concrete counts and examples tying class-size and staffing structures to student safety, instructional loss and the district's ability to implement multi-tiered systems of support. They asked the board to approve a non-permanent, one-year teacher to stabilize the grade while systems are established.

Board response and next steps: Trustees listened and asked no clarifying questions recorded in the transcript. The request was presented during the public-comment portion of the agenda; there was no formal board motion or vote on the request at that meeting.

Clarifying details - Student counts: The grade in question will serve 58 students total, in two classrooms of 29 each (one class with 9 IEPs, the other with 11 IEPs). Source: Rachel Gerhardt (public comment). - School status: Chief Charlo Elementary School was described as not a Title I school; staff said there is no social worker or Title I teachers assigned to the building. Source: Rachel Gerhardt, Susan Ray. - Tier meetings: Gerhardt reported the school held tier 2 meetings three times and tier 3 meetings three times this year. - Requested remedy: One-year, strategic additional classroom teacher (temporary, not permanent) to allow time to develop systems for tiered supports.

Proper names and roles cited - Rachel Gerhardt, school counselor, Chief Charlo Elementary School (public commenter) - Susan Ray, classroom teacher, Chief Charlo Elementary School (public commenter)

Meeting context: The remarks occurred during the public comment section and were recorded under the public-comment agenda item. Trustees did not take formal action on the staffing request during the meeting; the request is a public appeal to the board to consider a targeted, temporary staffing investment.