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Superintendent seeks $451,000 from reserves to pilot hires aimed at shrinking class sizes and boosting special-education support
Summary
Superintendent Sweeney asked the board for nonbinding authorization to use $451,000 of ending fund balance to hire one elementary teacher and an assistant director of special education and to provisionally fund middle-school supports; the board gave a thumbs-up pending formal budget-committee action.
Superintendent Sweeney told the Grants Pass SD 7 board that, after recent state recalculations and property-tax adjustments, the district can afford a limited pilot that uses $451,000 of the ending fund balance to address large elementary classes and the growing special-education workload. “For $451,000 … we could do our very best to ensure that no grade school class is over 30 students,” Sweeney said, framing the proposal as a one-year pilot while the board monitors longer-term fiscal impacts.
Sweeney laid out the staffing plan: an assistant director for special education (about $200,000 fully loaded for a year) to support principals and IEP meetings, and one elementary teacher to reduce class sizes that in some places reached the mid-30s (he highlighted two Highland 3rd-grade classes with 34 students each). He also proposed allocating roughly $130,000 per middle school for targeted supports, although he and the board agreed that middle-school spending could be deferred until staff present a clearer plan.
Board members generally expressed support for the first two hires but urged caution about dipping into reserves. One member warned that the ending fund balance is not “extra money” and must be treated as an emergency cushion; another urged treating the effort as a pilot and returning in a month with details on the middle-school approach. The board indicated informal approval via a thumbs-up to allow near-term hiring steps while formal appropriation and final budget approval will proceed through the budget committee.
