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Parents and staff press Isle of Wight board on special-education staffing; division details specialized programs
Summary
Parents described staffing shortfalls in self-contained special-education classrooms and urged the board to add paraprofessionals; special-education staff presented program structure, curricula and a plan that cites staff recruitment and retention as the main barrier.
Parents and special-education staff told the Isle of Wight County School Board on March 12 that current staffing in self-contained special-education classrooms is inadequate for the complexity of students’ needs, and they urged the board to prioritize additional instructional assistants and targeted supports in the FY2027 budget.
Parent Sarah Katowinski described her 7-year-old son with Level 3 nonverbal autism and said the district’s staffing model often leaves a single adult supervising up to eight students during critical needs such as toileting and crisis support. She said district figures showed 26 self-contained special-education classrooms across the division, and that only eight of those classrooms currently had two instructional assistants.
Special-education coordinators Kristen Daley and Janetta Moody followed with a presentation describing specialized classrooms in the division: multi-level small-group environments that use structured visual schedules, data-driven curricula and research-validated programs such as the STAR autism curriculum, TeachTown, MUSEUM and the Zones of Regulation. They said specialized classrooms typically operate with low student-to-teacher ratios (staff referenced averages around 3:1 in the most restrictive placements and roughly seven students in some special-program classrooms) and stressed that instructional goals include communication, behavior regulation and life skills alongside adapted academics.
Daley and Moody told the board that recruitment and retention of special-education teachers and paraprofessionals is the division’s primary barrier to fully implementing the plan and meeting student needs. They outlined community-based instruction and a new life-skills suite at Smithfield High School intended to support transition and employment skills for older students. The board asked about parental engagement and whether take-home or reinforcement activities are available; presenters confirmed there are take-home supports and that parents remain actively involved.
What’s next: The special-education annual plan will go to the public for comment and return to the board for approval next month. Board members and staff agreed that staffing remains a priority tied to budget decisions already approved earlier in the meeting.
