Agenda - 04-24-2018 Attachment B. Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Board of Education FY2018-19 Budget Request and CIP

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AGENDA ITEM # 2 ATTACHMENT B Middle School Gifted Specialists (Strategic Plan Whole Child Goal): Prior to the start of the 2016 -17 school year, the number of middle school gifted education specialists (GES) were reduced from four to two. Although approximately 30% of middle school students are identified as academically or intellectually gifted (AIG), each school is now allotted .5 GES. Our current instructional focus is on shoring up core instruction to ensure we are meeting the academic needs of all students. Through providing on -going differentiation support to teachers, developing and supporting the implementation of differentiated education plans and working directly with students, GES play a significant role in ensuring AIG students grow academically. Having a full - time GES at each school would provide a much - needed structure to improve AIG service delivery and allow administrators to build teacher capacity in differentiation by leveraging the GES's expertise. We request funding to hire two additional specialists at an approximate cost of $164,944. Elementary Teacher Assistants (Strategic Plan Human Capital Goal): Over the past several years, state cuts have been made to the teacher assistant allocation. Despite redirecting local f coding to offset state reductions, we were eventually forced to make cuts to elementary teaching assistants at the upper grade levels (Grades 4 and 5). We once provided 1 teacher assistant for every 2 classrooms, whereas now we can only provide 1 teacher assistant for every 4 classrooms. While schools have been managing, the reduction in upper grade teacher assistants has created hardships in many areas including creating barriers to support classroom instruction. Reduced support levels impact our teachers' resources to provide small group instruction, participate in professional development, and receive adequate planning time. Principals also have to balance competing needs and, at times, have moved Grade 3 teacher assistants to cover upper grade classrooms based on the needs of the students. This reduces support for Grade 3 teachers and students during the critical "Read to Achieve" year. In 2016 -17 the Board also approved the elimination of each elementary school's media assistant position due to local budget shortfalls. At the time our principals felt this reduction was manageable and would not result in media center schedule changes or closures. Our Director of Digital Learning and Library Services worked with elementary principals and media specialists to ensure that our media centers continued to have flexible access and that media specialists received collaborative planning time. Teacher assistants were provided training to assist with book checks and other media functions and our volunteers department has helped coordinate additional support for the schools' media center. While these efforts have mitigated the loss, challenges exist for some schools and students, especially with circulation. We are recommending that the Board request additional funding for each elementary school to receive a flex teacher assistant position. This position could be used to provide additional classroom teacher assistant support or to provide media center support. Employees in these positions would be required to be licensed bus drivers to provide additional support to transportation staffing challenges. The total estimated cost for 1 I flex teacher assistant/drivers totals $427,761. Teacher Assistant Professional Days (Strategic Plan Human Capital Goal): During the great recession, the district eliminated 5 days of employment for every teacher assistant. This means 2