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Finance committee details staffing request process; reviews translation services and CRES contract for bilingual support
Summary
Committee described how staffing requests are submitted and prioritized (31 requests this year, two budgeted), and reviewed translation/interpreting services, the district’s contracting with CRES for paraeducators and bilingual supports, and ELD staffing levels.
Mr. Tracy explained to the finance committee how the district handles staffing requests during the budget cycle and reviewed translation and interpreting services the district uses.
Tracy said departments and buildings submit staffing requests using a standard form that includes job title, description, justification and alignment with district goals; the district received about 31 such requests for the coming year and incorporated two new positions into the proposed budget. He said many requests are addressed through reallocation, retirements, federal grant funding (for example Title 1 or Title 3), or other internal adjustments rather than by adding new positions.
On language supports, Tracy provided a five-year review of contracted translation and interpreting services and said the district has spent roughly “about $400,000 in all” for external contract interpreting, software and related services over the recent period. He identified a contracted full-time translator (“Carmen”) who works under an independent contractor agreement with an annual not-to-exceed amount of roughly $50,000 and noted the district also uses on-demand software such as TalkingPoints and other vendors.
Tracy described CRES (an external provider that grew out of the intermediate unit) as the district’s major vendor for paraeducators and personal care assistants; he said CRES staff supply the bulk of the 12 dedicated bilingual ELD paraeducators who work across district schools and that Nancy Castaneda is assigned full time to the high school to support students and translations. Tracy said CRES operates as an independent nonprofit with its own executive director (named in the presentation as Matt Przywara) and that the district has a multi-year contract with CRES; he said their overhead rate is favorable compared with other vendors.
Board members questioned whether bilingual staffing meets parents’ needs: committee members noted that while many district offices and building front desks have at least one bilingual staffer, parents still report difficulties reaching bilingual staff promptly. Linda Carrillo asked for concrete examples and for the district to track parent-language needs; Tracy and other staff requested examples so they can analyze gaps.
Tracy also discussed ELD staffing and performance: he said the district has expanded ELD capacity in recent years (the district added positions with federal COVID funds that were later incorporated into the budget) and that some schools show higher ELD percentages (for example, Greenwood about 19%, Bancroft about 37%). He said many elementary students transition out of ELD services as they gain English proficiency.
The committee said technology may help with real-time translation for events and assemblies, but district staff noted district-wide deployment would be expensive; staff described a pilot-level cost estimate of roughly $900,000 to implement a simultaneous translation system across the high school or district. Committee members asked staff to continue pursuing a combination of bilingual staffing, targeted contracting and technology pilots to address parent needs.
