Minutes 05-10-2022 Budget Public Hearing and Work Session

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13 Marisa Kathard said her daughter is a junior EC student at East Chapel Hill High School. She said she has been a SNAC advocate for 10 years. She said the recent staffing shortages have become critical and detrimental to fulfilling the school's mission. She said that as a pediatrician, it is a struggle to juggle work and be present at home to support her daughter, especially when there was remote learning during the pandemic. She said her daughter has had four classroom teachers in three years because of the high turnover, and no classroom teacher since November 2021. She said there have been no applicants for the vacancy. She said her daughter's IEP goals are not being addressed due to the absence of a certified EC teacher. She said the second TA in the classroom resigned at the beginning of April, and her daughter's skills are regressing. She said the school speech therapist and occupational therapist also resigned. She expressed concern for EC students whose families cannot afford these services privately. She said CHCCS is touted as one of the best districts in the state but are falling short. She said EC resource teachers at East have 30 students instead of 17 due to vacancies. She said EC students have been disproportionately impacted by teacher vacancies. She urged the Board to support the CHCCS budget request and said it would allow CHCCS to recruit and retain high quality EC teachers for the most vulnerable students in the county. Mella Diaz said the most disadvantaged in society are always left behind. She said those who choose to teach EC students are exceptional. She said being able to instill the concept of what is safe and what is dangerous keeps children like her own son alive, and understanding how to teach communication to EC students is paramount to their existence. She said many students in the adapted curriculum classes have behavioral complexities that need to be baselined, mapped, and have support built into their daily lives that enable them to access the academic environment. She said the school district must have the ability to hire EC teachers at competitive rates and must provide the training and support EC students need including undervalued occupational and physical therapists. She said the lack of availability of teachers who can facilitate much needed care for the disabled is astounding, and the few who do are underpaid. She said the average salary for teachers in North Carolina is a disgrace, and the workload for EC teachers is beyond the norm which is reflected in the number of vacancies. She said it is regrettable that EC administration must spend countless hours searching all over the country for teaching staff. She requested the Board fully fund the CHCCS Budget request to support EC teachers, EC administrative staff, and resources needed to fully staff schools with qualified teachers for students with disabilities. She said this is an equity and safety issue, and lack of adequate support for EC students puts them at risk physically and academically. Linda Gilchrist said her family moved to CHCCS district 11 years ago from the Chicago suburbs. She said she and her family are passionate about public education and dedicate time and resources to schools. She said she is disappointed the Commissioners will not fully fund the budget requests. She said many students haven't had a Spanish teacher or CTE teachers for most of the year at East Chapel Hill High School, and there is a lack of staff and assistant principals. She said education is the key to the success of society and the county needs to adequately fund good public education. She said she lives in a nice area of Chapel Hill, but many families in her neighborhood are planning to send their children to private schools. She said Chapel Hill is the cornerstone of education in North Carolina, and the community and county need to support students, teachers, and staff. Christina Clark said she is the president of the Orange County Association of Educators and is an English teacher at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough. She said the past two years have been difficult for everyone in school systems, but issues have been festering for years. She said after the state legislature has failed for many years to fund education and pay school staff fairly, the pandemic was the last straw for many. She said those who considered leaving education before the pandemic are gone, and those who never did are considering it now. She said long-term substitutes have become ubiquitous in classrooms and administrative