Palm Beach school board approves consultant amendments to maintain speech-language services amid staffing shortages
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Summary
The Palm Beach County School Board unanimously approved nine consultant agreement amendments to add hours and spending authority for outside speech-language providers after staff said vacancies among district SLPs make contracting necessary to meet students’ IEPs.
The Palm Beach County School Board on Feb. 24 approved a series of consultant-agreement amendments to add hours and spending authority for speech-language therapy vendors, a set of nine motions members said are needed to meet federally required IEP services amid a shortage of district speech-language pathologists.
Superintendent Maria Burke told the board the nine items are similar requests to add service hours to existing vendor agreements because the district faces “a significant number of vacancies” among its SLPs and must provide services required by student IEPs. “Our preference is to do the work in house,” Burke said, “but for decades we’ve been dependent on a level of outside service.”
Board members raised questions about transparency and contracting processes. Board member Savallero (pulled items from consent) asked whether increases in contract amounts were negotiated, how many schools and therapists each contract covers and whether the district has an inventory of contracts. Several trustees urged staff to provide a written follow-up and to consider a workshop on contracts.
Trustee supporters stressed legal and programmatic necessities. “It is federally mandated that we provide these services,” a board member said during debate, and others noted the district’s critical shortage in the area and the consequences of unmet services for students with special needs.
Each consultant amendment — including items identified on the agenda as FMPA2 through FMPA9 — was moved and approved individually; the board recorded unanimous votes on each item. Trustees said staff present (including the chief academic officer, purchasing director and executive director of exceptional student education) were prepared to answer questions about the specific agenda items.
What’s next: Staff agreed to provide the board with additional information about the contracts and the district’s broader contracting portfolio. The votes authorize the agreed contract amendments and allow the district to continue contracting for the hours necessary to meet current IEP obligations.