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Neshaminy board thanks longtime employees; aide staffing and full-time status raised as concern
Summary
Board members recognized multiple retirees with more than 30 years of service and an instructional assistant said limited full-time openings for aides may prompt staff to leave for neighboring districts that offer full-time benefits.
The Neshaminy School Board recognized several employees who are retiring after long careers and heard concerns from an instructional assistant about the district's practice of limiting full-time positions for classroom aides.
Board members during the meeting thanked multiple staffers with decades of service. In public remarks and during personnel motions, the board cited employees with more than 30 years of service, among them several staff whose years of service the board read aloud during the personnel agenda item.
During the second public comment period, Mary Ellen Pulak, who identified herself as an Albert Schweitzer Elementary School employee, described a long career in district schools and said her printed retirement notice underreported her years of service. Pulak said she will retire at the end of the year after roughly 26 years with the district and described duties that include intervention groups, recess duty, and morning and afternoon supervision. She said she is concerned that the district limits the number of full-time instructional aides and that part-time aides in her building may leave for nearby districts that offer full-time status and benefits.
"I agree that we need full time people in special needs in the special needs program, but we also need them in the general ed population," Pulak said. "We're moving to 7 fourth grade classrooms." She asked the board to consider maintaining more full-time aide positions to retain experienced staff.
Board members acknowledged the retirements and singled out staff members for special thanks; one board member noted seven employees with more than 30 years of service and named individuals and service lengths in the record. The meeting did not include a detailed personnel-policy discussion on the number of full-time aide positions; no formal change to staffing policies was proposed or voted on at the session.
Multiple routine personnel motions to accept retirements, resignations and appointments were approved as part of the consent/master motions (see "Votes at a glance" for the formal votes and tallies recorded by the board).
