Green T-shirts representing Mill Brook School filled the Concord School Board meeting Monday, showing support for the school’s special education students and staff.
Clad in green, Lindsay McGee, the lead special education teacher of the autism program at the school, said she was short two educational assistants and was struggling to meet the needs of students.
“I’m able to see one first-grade reading group right now. I’m supposed to see three different grade levels twice a day for 30 minutes for reading and math, and that’s not happening,” McGee said.
The elementary school, serving pre-kindergarten through second grade, had the biggest influx in students requiring additional support this year. Lacking educational assistants, staff said they are stretched thin.
Across the Concord School District, 19 educational assistant requests have been made as of last week, reported Superintendent Timothy Herbert. Mill Brook had requested six.
McGee said her current caseload is 10 students, who are all diagnosed with autism and who are minimally speaking or non-speaking, with complex needs. She said at least 10 more students in Mill Brook could use the placement and support of the autism program.
“I don’t feel like a teacher right now and it’s really, really heartbreaking,” McGee said. “I got into teaching to help students learn and grow, and I don’t feel like I’m able to do that with the lack of EAs in my program and within our building as a whole.”
Among the dozen or so wearing green was Lucas Gallo, a parent and employee of Concord schools, who invited board members to visit the elementary school for themselves.
“I believe to really know something, it’s important to experience it,” Gallo said during public comment. “I could sit here and tell you about the overwhelming amount of complex needs, the stab injuries sustained just this year alone; of the hard work, teamwork and dedication of every staff member, from the principal to the custodian, that go way above and beyond the duties of their own position on a daily basis.”
Herbert said the percentage of students coming into the district with special education needs has increased. Many Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) — for students who have moved into the district and those who were with the district last year —now require additional support, creating a greater need for services.
“More and more we hear the profile of the child that’s arriving is so different, more complex than it’s ever been before,” Herbert said.
Herbert’s report on student services and staffing needs had not originally been included in the school board’s materials, but he said he felt the school board needed to be made aware of the issue.
The district was able to reallocate three positions, one to Abbott Downey and two to Mill Brook, bringing the number of outstanding requests down to 16.
“This, to me, seemed like an emergency type of personnel request coming in,” Herbert said. “The sheer numbers and the fact that the majority of these were unpredictable circumstances.”
An occupational therapist, working at Broken Ground School who was helping with charter school and out-of-district placements, also recently resigned. The therapist cited the inability to meet the work demand, Herbert said. Now, the district needs to fill the role.
Vicki Hopkins had originally come to the board meeting to support Mill Brook, but decided to speak on the occupational therapist position. As an occupational therapist who has been with the district for the past 17 years, Hopkins explained that these specialists work with students from pre-school through high school, meeting with teams and families, as well as providing evaluations, screenings, consultations and services for students’ physical and mental health. She said a caseload does not always encompass an entire workload.
“When I left Rundlett [Middle School], the (occupational therapist) who was hired next left after three months because of the workload,” Hopkins said. “We increased the position and that person has now stayed a little while. I was doing the same at Broken Ground, managing both of them. It was not sustainable with the rising needs of our youngest learners, and the same thing just happened again after four days.”
The therapist who resigned had been working 60% of a full-time schedule. After taking another look at case management sizes across the district, Herbert said administrators believed the district needed an occupational therapist working 80% of a full-time schedule.
These staffing needs impact students directly, said Jessie Morency, who spoke as a parent of a child with a disability. She said she felt supported last year when her daughter was in pre-school at Mill Brook, but has sensed a drop in support during the last three to six months when her daughter transitioned into kindergarten.
Morency said she had recently learned that a whistle blown at recess, earlier in the school year, had caused her daughter to run. She also learned that her daughter could only be provided a one-to-one paraprofessional for half of the day, despite having signed an IEP stating that her daughter would have one-to-one support, she said.
“I think the overall consensus is that parents just want communication,” Morency said. “That is the number one thing… We just want to know that our child is safe and taken care of and seen. And I think that’s all it comes down to.”
Herbert said the district can face challenges in meeting student services needs because of the difficulty filling the positions. Going forward, administrators will evaluate how this increased need will impact the district’s budget and tax rate. A special meeting to decide the tax rate is set for Oct. 26.
Herbert said the district will do its best to mitigate the need; however, he said it is unlikely that all requests will be covered.
