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Jefferson County board preserves school mental-health staff, shifts instructional coach funding to principals
Summary
After heated debate and extensive public comment, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted to remove mental health practitioners from proposed cuts and direct principals to use school budgets to purchase comparable academic-instructional coach positions, while preserving a commitment to the superintendent's instructional coaching model.
The Jefferson County Board of Education voted Jan. 20 to preserve school-based mental health practitioners and to let principals use school funds to purchase academic instructional coach (AIC) equivalents, a compromise aimed at protecting frontline student supports while meeting fiscal targets.
The motion, offered by board member James Craig and read into the record, directed the superintendent to "fully fund mental health practitioners, retaining the existing school-based staffing model and allocation" and to remove MHPs from proposed reductions estimated at $7,600,000. To offset that change the motion recommended permitting principals to purchase an AIC-comparable support position from school budgets, producing a general-fund saving of $7,300,000 and maintaining a $7,300,000 commitment to Dr. Yearwood's…
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