The Jackson Madison County School Boardroom filled with parents of students, former educators, and those concerned about the future of Montessori School of Bemis.
The concerns stemmed from a November 5th letter parents received stating that “As a result of the new guidance on the U.S.E.D. Comparability Report noted above our district is being held accountable for comparable staffing at The Montessori School of Bemis. The letter went on to say “Specifically this means that our district is mandated to reduce the number of regular education assistants so that the staffing is comparable to other schools in the district.”
A group of parents and others formed immediately after a November 6 parent meeting to organizing a campaign to find alternatives.
The group chose five spokespersons to address the board during public comment item, which falls at the beginning of the meeting, to speak on behalf of parents. The group broke up the their time into different subtopics, speaking on the value of the school to the district, teacher assistants as resources and the danger of removing resources, excellence in education results, and more. The board allowed 30 minutes for comments on this one topic. No one asked to speak on any other issue. The group’s intent was to plea the case of the parents for finding a way to keep the teacher assistants at the Montessori school if not permanently at least for the remainder of the year.
Debbie Owen, Title I with the State Department of Education attended the meeting and spoke to the board and public in much more detail than had been done prior.
Owens told the board there are several options available to resolve the comparability issue. First, the problem is not with the Montessori school, Owens explained, it is adjusted resources at Title 1 schools to bring them in line with Bemis and Beech Bluff. Owens told the board no one was saying to decrease resources; “we’re saying every child in your district needs the additional resources,”
Owens said you don’t have to move teacher assistants at Bemis Montessori, The problem is not at Bemis. You can become compliant by making a budget change at your Title I schools. You are not mandated to move the teacher assistants.
After the meeting Paul Williams a Montessori School parent said the parents were under the impression that the school was going to lose 14 teaching assistants. Williams said they were told the school would have to obey the audit and those positions at that school would be lost.
I came into the meeting thinking we had to remove 14 teacher assistants out of the classes and I left feeling that there were other options looking at funding and other things we could do. The superintendent didn’t give us that option when we met with her.
Back in the meeting the issue became how the communication was handled. Bob Alvey told Ruffin it reminded him of the way the instructional coach rehiring was handled. He thought communication with teachers, parents, and the whole board was mishandled.
Ruffin said she wanted to come to the board with information and options and she wanted the staff to hear it from her first and not at a board meeting.
