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Teachers and parents urge Bass Lake board to preserve RTI, PE and psychology services amid cuts
Summary
Multiple teachers and parents told the Bass Lake board that proposed cuts to RTI, PE and school‑psychology positions will harm student safety and special‑education services and urged alternatives including temporary combination classes to retain staff.
Several teachers and parents told the Bass Lake Joint Union Elementary School District board during public comment that planned staffing reductions threaten student services and safety.
Gail Lancaster, a former district resource specialist, said the district’s early reading Response to Intervention program dramatically reduced caseloads in past years and asked the board to keep it: "I'm asking you to keep it." Michelle Burton, a teacher at OES, described cuts to PE, STEM and psychology staff and proposed a temporary 4/5 combination class to preserve a position, saying she and other teachers had "worked with 3 teachers agree that it would be better for students to have a combination class for 1 year than to permanently lose 1 a PE or a psych or a SPED teacher." Megan Haggard and Becky Knight emphasized student safety concerns; Knight warned that eliminating the lead psychologist and an intern would leave no clear crisis responder and would force principals to attend many IEPs, disrupting school operations.
The comments requested the board reconsider reductions and consider stopgap solutions that would avoid permanently losing specialized staff. The commenters tied staffing concerns to both classroom safety and compliance with IEP timelines, and urged the board to look for alternatives before finalizing cuts.
