Cedar Rapids school board says staffing review ongoing after parents and students raise concerns at Washington High

Cindy Garlock, director at large for the Cedar Rapids Community School District board, said the board spent substantial time Monday reviewing the district’s staffing model and hearing community input from parents and students at Washington High School. "We started off the night with a lot of community input, a lot of parents and students here from Washington High School, with concerns and, providing us input about staffing for Washington for next year," she said.

Garlock said the district is in year two of the staffing model and described declining enrollment in some buildings as a challenge for allocating staff next year. She emphasized the board and administrators are still working through numbers and that "we are not yet at a place where we are talking about specific numbers here at the board table." The board heard a presentation that reviewed multiple budget "buckets" and what funds can and cannot be used for.

Garlock urged patience with the process and said administrators and district staff will continue to refine the model with equity across buildings as a guiding goal. She told listeners staff at the ELC were available to answer questions and reiterated that the board would keep the community updated.

The board did not take any formal votes or adopt staffing figures at the meeting. Next steps described by Garlock included continued staff work on the model and further community engagement before any final decisions were made.