Parents and staff urge board to slow consolidation plans, raise staffing and special‑needs concerns

During the public‑comment portion of the Feb. 24 meeting, parents, teachers and special‑education staff delivered multiple statements urging the board to reconsider elements of the consolidation plan and to address staffing and student‑safety concerns.

Tianna Batiste Waddell (parent/advocate, JAX Aspire Foundation) asked the district to explain its strategy for addressing disproportionate referral and suspension rates for Black students and to update the board on the local JDAI (Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative) assessment status. Dorothy Burgraf, a special educator at Elkhart Academy, described repeated leadership turnover, multiple relocations and understaffing that she said have harmed programming at the alternative school; she said decisions had been 'bulldozed' through without adequate staffing to implement them and urged careful consideration of impacts on the district's most needy students.

Multiple speakers from the alternative program (including Jennifer Betts) asked that live instruction be restored to high school academy classes impacted by teacher reassignments, and asked for a counselor and a full staff complement before any permanent program changes. Shelly Circosta and Eileen Corson, both special‑education staff, warned that consolidating intense classrooms into fewer buildings would increase student counts with complex medical and behavioral needs, raise safety and staffing coverage questions, and require physical modifications, training and emergency‑response planning.

Parents also raised broader concerns: Alex Fonseca called for preserving the Hawthorne staff and services that supported his autistic son’s progress; Amanda Beidleman Campbell urged keeping special‑needs classes co‑located with general education peers to protect inclusion and relationships; another parent described a prior student search and asked why some employees were placed on paid leave while others were not, urging improved hiring practices; and Linda Fine criticized RIF (reduction‑in‑force) email notices sent late on a Friday and said board policy specifies a May–July notification window.

Administrators acknowledged the comments and said they are gathering feedback: school leaders emphasized that Phase 3 of consolidation is focused on people and careful transitions, promised additional engagement with staff and families, and said final recommendations will be presented to the board before spring break. Presenters said they are prioritizing cohort preservation for intense special‑needs programming and that no decisions in Phase 3 are yet 'set in stone.'