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Superintendent reports enrollment gains, ongoing special-education staffing challenges
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Vidi Beatty told the board enrollment rose to 49,710 students and highlighted strategic-plan gains while acknowledging persistent vacancies in special-education (notably ASD) classrooms; he described incentives and options the district is pursuing to fill gaps.
Superintendent Dr. Vidi Beatty briefed the board on Nov. 11 that district enrollment stood at 49,710, an increase of roughly 1,000 students from the prior year, and that fall-to-fall retention is 71% with average daily attendance at about 86%.
Beatty said the district has observed gains on strategic-plan metrics (family engagement and certain M-STEP results) and pointed to increases in state funding that will be reflected in an upcoming Budget Amendment 1 scheduled for full-board action in January. He said grant funding increases include pre-K (GSRP), 31a at-risk allocations, bilingual funding and several smaller lines for robotics, CTE and transportation.
On staffing, Beatty acknowledged "definite" improvements in hiring but said the district is seeing a particular increase in identified ASD students. He listed vacancies across categories (nine core teacher vacancies, largely special-education; one assistant principal vacancy; multiple counselor and social-worker roles and dozens of cafeteria-worker and custodian contract vacancies). To address recruitment, the district negotiated a $15,000 bonus for ESE teachers and is discussing additional bonuses and contracted staffing for ASD areas if bonuses alone do not suffice.
Board members and public commenters urged expedited hiring, audits of caseloads in ASD classrooms and improved communications to families about services; Beatty said administration will continue to pursue options and report back.
Ending: The district plans Budget Amendment 1 to account for state funding increases and will return to committees in December before seeking full-board approval in January.
