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Trustees cite paraprofessional turnover and urge competitive pay and training
Summary
Board members said paraprofessionals are hard to retain and recommended addressing pay and training; administrators confirmed paraprofessionals receive CPI de‑escalation training and onboarding with child‑study teams but acknowledged pay competitiveness remains a primary retention challenge.
Several trustees raised concerns about paraprofessional retention during the budget workshop and urged the administration to consider pay increases and training incentives.
A board member said paraprofessionals "have some of the hardest jobs here and they get paid the least," and argued that improving pay would help retention. Administrators confirmed paraprofessionals receive training, meet with child study teams, read IEPs and often take CPI de‑escalation instruction, but acknowledged salary competitiveness remains a primary reason staff leave for other districts or employers.
The board said these staffing pressures would be part of upcoming collective‑bargaining negotiations and asked the business office to model the fiscal impacts of targeted pay increases for paraprofessionals to improve retention.
