Public comments: delegates and parents press for Northwest CTE, PTA urges ban on new synthetic turf and unions raise payroll and IEP concerns

A range of community members addressed the Board of Education on topics including expansion of CTE programs in the northwest, synthetic turf hazards, payroll problems after a payroll-system transition and special-education staffing shortages.

Delegate Pastor opened public comment by urging the board to "put the Northwest CTE programs in the forefront" to address long-standing gaps in career-technical offerings in that corridor. Beth Jarrett of the PTA Council summarized a resolution asking the board to "place a moratorium on installing new synthetic turf fields," to post warning signs at existing fields and to prefer natural grass when a field reaches end of life; Jarrett cited heat, injury, chemical exposure and waste concerns.

Kelly Olds of TAPCO thanked payroll and HR staff for recent corrections but said payroll accuracy remains a "nonnegotiable" issue for employees after the district's transition to Oracle, noting withheld 403(b) contributions and confusing payslip formatting that forces staff to contact payroll to understand earnings and deductions.

Caroline Stein, a speech-language pathologist, told the board caseloads remain unsustainably high after contract changes, said therapists sometimes start the year with very large caseloads (her own caseload was 92 last year and about 70 now) and urged a pilot of a team model including SLP assistants and virtual SLPs to improve service delivery.

Speakers asked the board for clearer volunteer and harassment policy language, greater transparency about closed-session actions and better communication about IEP processes and points of contact at individual schools. No formal board action was taken on these public comments at the meeting, though staff said written resolutions and requests would be accepted and the PTA resolution would be shared with board docs.