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Educators press Twin Rivers for staffing, benefits and results from outside contractors
Summary
Union leaders urged the board to prioritize hiring and benefits, criticized spending on consultants and contractors, and multiple trustees demanded a full breakdown and presentation on contracts with Swan/Swancoaching and vendor performance for speech-language services.
Multiple representatives of Twin Rivers United Educators and district staff used public comment and the consent-agenda discussion to press the board for changes to contracting and staffing priorities.
Rebecca Ledoux, president of Twin Rivers United Educators, told trustees the union submitted a petition signed by a supermajority of members and criticized the district for spending on outside consultants while failing to address educator working conditions and stalled contract negotiations. "We are calling on you to give clear direction to your team to come to the table prepared to meaningfully engage," she said.
Trustees asked detailed questions about payments to a vendor described in the meeting as "Swan" or "Swancoaching." Trustee Rochelle, Trustee Baker and others requested a presentation and a contract breakdown after noting recent invoices and payments that total, by trustee remarks, roughly $3.2 million over several months; district staff agreed to present the full breakdown at the next board meeting and to include purchase orders and contracts.
The meeting also included sustained public testimony about special education services. Clark Knutson, a speech-language pathologist at Orchard Elementary, said Twin Rivers had not hired a district SLP in more than two years and that students missed months of services when contract providers failed to show or quit, leaving no records. "Twin Rivers is losing more district SLPs than we can hire and replacing them with unreliable expensive contractors who can leave at any moment," Knutson said. Trustees asked staff to return with a report on SLP staffing levels, vendor oversight, caseload policies, and evaluation of contracted providers.
District staff acknowledged obligations under existing contracts and said they would provide documentation of invoices, POs and contract terms, evaluate potential contract exit clauses, and report on nurse and SLP staffing levels and vendor oversight practices to the board.
