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Board debates ESE coordinator qualifications as longtime ESE administrator announces retirement
Summary
Nassau County School Board members debated whether coordinator and specialist roles should require classroom teaching experience while staff proposed broader qualifications to widen the applicant pool; Patsy Kelly announced she will retire June 30 and urged the board to consider ESE needs in hiring plans.
Doctor Burns opened discussion on revisions to several Exceptional Student Education (ESE) job descriptions, saying the district aims to broaden qualifications to attract more candidates. "The change is in the job goal: quality education program for a student or students based on individual education plan," Doctor Burns said, describing an update that clarifies 1-on-1 paras can be designated as targeted paras so they may support more than one student.
Patsy Kelly, identified in the workshop as an ESE administrator, told the board the change will help the district better utilize para resources. "We're trying to move more in the direction of a targeted para to better utilize our resources so they can support more than one student at a time," Kelly said.
Board members split over proposed changes to the staffing specialist and ESE coordinator descriptions. Staff recommended removing a three-year classroom teaching minimum for staffing specialists in favor of a master’s degree or five years of ESE experience to widen a hard-to-fill applicant pool; staff noted several anticipated vacancies. "This is a position that's hard to fill," staff said, noting openings and a need to broaden recruitment.
Some board members urged that coordinator and director roles retain a teaching requirement so leaders understand classroom realities. "If you're going to be the coordinator, they should have teaching experience," one member said. Others, including a former principal, countered that the coordinator position requires mitigation, legal and case-management skills and that limiting applicants to teachers could exclude qualified candidates. "Having the knowledge of special ed rules...mitigation and conflict resolution are strengths that this position needs," a former principal said.
Kelly, who said she will retire on June 30 after nine years as an ESE administrator, urged the board to consider the department's needs during the transition. "Whatever decision y'all make is not going to affect me personally, except it does affect me because I love this district and I love my ESE department," Kelly said.
Staff also presented a draft revision to the Director of ESE job description (last updated in 2002) that would qualify school principals and ESE administrators from other districts to apply. Staff noted current local ESE administrators by name as part of the discussion.
Next steps: staff will finalize wording for the staffing specialist, coordinator and director job descriptions for consideration at the next posted meeting and to support recruitment ahead of Kelly’s June retirement.
