Hamilton County School Board member Ben Daugherty withdrew two separate motions Thursday night intended to protect the exceptional education budget line item and dial back benchmark or standardized testing to once a year.
All evening board members talked about plans to absorb 28 exceptional education assistant positions into a service hours structure, and move some established exceptional education programs and staff to other schools, especially affecting a well-respected career program at Ooltewah High School.
Board member Felice Hadden urged the administration not to bother a program that works, where longtime staff who built it are happy. Ms. Hadden taught at Ooltewah High for 20 years.
The restructure had evolved into rumors of 28 job cuts, but Chief Talent Officer Zac Brown clarified that those teachers will have other jobs within the system.
“I’m confident that we’re going to have a home for them. We need them,” he said.
“I don’t see a day that I’m ever going to ask a special ed teacher to leave,” he said, adding that he’s seeking to hire seven more exceptional education teachers, as of Thursday night.
“We have to move people around at times,” said board member Gary Kuehn. “It’s not pleasant, but at least there is a job waiting for them.”
Dr. Brown said that many will be reassigned by April 1, and the rest by June 15.
Dr. Brown said he must first consider annual district-wide relocation requests, which may work in those teachers’ favor. Then the Individualized Education Program teams of each exceptional education student will meet with families and decide together where that student will go to school. Exceptional education students won’t be forced to leave their zoned schools, it was stated.
Only then will teachers be placed for the fall, Dr. Brown said.
Dr. Robertson said the restructuring will shave $1.6 million off the budget and serve students better than the former “headcount” model, because some students need few accommodations, and others need many.
“We have created a system that is not best serving kids,” Dr. Robertson said. “What we are moving to is a service hours-based model.”
Preserving that $1.6 million would fund positions that have been phased out, he said.
Benchmark Testing
Mr. Daugherty also proposed cutting benchmark and other standardized testing, besides TCAP, from three times a year to once a year, halfway through the year.
“It almost seems like there’s this religious-like fascination with data,” Mr. Daugherty said. “At what cost are we pursuing this data?”
But first the board would have to take the authority to manage testing from Dr. Robertson by voting to amend its current policy, said schools attorney Scott Bennett.
“I would ask that you give us a minute to talk with experts and talk with our team to come back with a proposal before we say, ‘Let’s completely do away with this,’” Dr. Robertson said.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Sonia Stewart argued that only 2.88 days is given to “benchmark” testing, which clocks in below a two percent best practices cap.
“We actually see this as a time saver, not a time waster, because of the way you can tailor instruction as a result,” she said.
Dr. Stewart said the district just the day before informed schools that it’s cutting K-2 benchmark testing back to twice a year.
By the hours, schools devote 30 out of 180 school days to state and county testing, or six weeks of class time, Mr. Daugherty said. Every member of the school board who joined Thursday’s conversation said their districts had nothing positive to say about standardized or benchmark testing.
“We have a lot of data just within our own district,” said board member Hadden “We need to listen to teachers when they talk about what’s best for them… and not just what other people tell us is best.”
The board will consider its options and propose a solution before the $788,000 annual contract for CASE Benchmark Assessments is renewed.
“I think the majority of the board has made their position pretty clear on this,” Mr. Daugherty said.
“If we’re so focused on data, I think we’re missing what’s most important, and that’s these kids and these teachers in the classroom,” Mr. Daugherty said.