Carson City residents pack school board meeting in protest of budget proposals

It was standing room only earlier this week at Tuesday evening's Carson City School Board meeting thanks to a budget proposal that ruffled more than a few feathers.

According to the presentation given by Andrew Feuling, the Carson City School District is once again needing to cut costs, and the current projected deficit for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 is $2.6 million.

The district is looking at many different ways to overcome that deficit grant, including looking for additional grants to help fund programs and salaries, deferring costs for things such as technology replacement, reassigning current employees to fill vacant positions, but the one that caused a stir through the district was reduction of staff, specifically, paraprofessionals.

The Carson City School District Paraprofessionals work as instructional assistants or teacher’s aides, with a large focus on behavior and special education, as well as help for English Language Learners.

Throughout elementary schools in Carson City, paraprofessionals help manage classrooms and can help guide special education students through lessons, or can take a child out of the classroom due to a behavioral issue so that they do not become a distraction for the rest of the children and the teacher.

The district is proposing cutting 13 elementary paraprofessionals working within Kindergarten classrooms for a savings of $425,000, and two Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) aides for a savings of $102,000.

The district also proposed simply not replacing four certified positions in three secondary teachers at $225,000 and one district teacher at $98,000 once they became vacant.

Dozens of teachers, parents and district staff members came to the board meeting to protest the suggested budget including cutting paraprofessionals. By these cuts, the number of paraprofessionals would be reduced so that classes would only have one paraprofessionals for half of each day, something that those in protest found unacceptable.

Megan Garcia is a Kindergarten paraprofessional at Mark Twain Elementary School, who spoke in protest at the meeting.

“I want to start off by saying that we invest in these children,” said Garcia. “We love these kids. Not only do we support the general class, but for example, I also aid an autistic five-year-old every single day. When he started out he was very violent, had no social skills, and he was a flight risk. Today he is improving academically, socially, he’s not running as much. He’s learning how to be a student. My question is, how is a teacher supposed to teach the class that she has with a student like the running out or smacking someone in the face? You’ll see the test scores drop. You’re either going to be teaching behavior or you’ll be teaching academics. The teachers need the support system. It’s not just for special ed kids, it’s for all of them. The paras are needed.”

Kerri Finn is a clinical aid and the president of the Classified Educational Support Association, who also came to speak against the proposal.

“We know that the deficit is a major concern for the district,” said Finn, “but CESA strongly believes that eliminating the Kindergarten staff in the classroom is not a place that should be considered. Kindergarten has changed over the years, not only academically but with the changing behaviors of the students. The Carson City School District has ‘Inclusion in the Classroom,’ which in short means that students with learning and behavioral disabilities have opportunities to learn in the same environment and alongside non-disabled students. Research has shown inclusive education works well for all students, but there must be adequate resources when employing this type of education. Paras are important resource for both teachers and students. CESA is concerned not only for the paras, but for the students as well.”

Another protester was Tamara Jones, a paraprofessional with the school district working at Empire Elementary.

“I’m not a kinder-para but I was hired as a reading-para. Last year the school board walked through our school and complimented us on the ratio of adults per children. Now you’re cutting that number and you’re doing a disservice to the children. Education is changing; who is going to take a child to the nurse, cover recess duty at the playground, hallways, bathrooms, the cafeteria, help in the STEM lab, watch the halls during high stakes testing? Who’s going to be the extra hand to help the Kindergartner read, or the first grader write a sentence, a third grader that needs help with math? Who’s going to sit with a child when they’re upset? I’m not talking about special education paras, we’re all involved with the children’s behavior. The opera singer does not perform by herself, what about the sound system, the lighting guys, the backdrop, the stage hand, the orchestra, the advertising, the ushers? They all play an important part in her performance. We’re called support staff for a reason: we support. Our motto is, let’s do it for the kids. Well, what about the kids?”

No action was taken during the meeting. The topic will be revisited at the next school board meeting as budget negotiations continue.