‘Do the right thing’: Wake County schools’ staff call on district and board to fix the 'crisis' affecting special education.

Members including in a meeting just two weeks ago

We're expecting there to be some changes to that in

the proposed budget presented tonight

We'll be looking very closely to see what exactly is

included there

Again that meeting gets started in just an hour

We'll bring you all of the details all of those

happenings as soon as we get them

And Carrie Eric Miller WRL News

you anybody for mic off

Got it

Japanese if they really want me to

Japanese OK good

Yeah

You're already like

just to divide just distribute your weight

There you go

Don't do that

You're like a kid playing

I was just like I'm trying not to

I just don't want to like I was like

Oh

Hey y'all so we're gonna start moving over to that

grass area over there OK OK

So

my daughter

They can just go past

Everybody's coming over here

the table the table

a postcard on your way

This is the postcard

I think there's people going around

Thank you so much

They've been it seems I mean nothing to my knowledge

has been shared publicly

I don't want to get in your shop

The

and then even then

The idea for your CCK cuts I mean from the

last board meeting is kind of revealing

Uh I'll lead the way looking at CCK is still

Hey

Last name

like your initial stuff

Hey how are you You

Yeah

I

should have worn that shirt

I wore a shirt

So That

There we go

Good

job girls and just make sure you stay off the

curb

Good job

Put your signs out

Yay nice job

Sounds good

you

That's OK

Walking soon

Yeah yes we'll keep we're gonna move it

We're gonna move the party along in a little bit

That helps wake us all up

So y'all are gonna stay with me OK said she

was on her

Yeah no not

that

They don't even have time and it's always good to

get out and should just

They should know that parents they're not gonna say not

they speak positive

Oh that's a bummer

the way

your

Because I

Oh

I would agree with that one too

sir

Yeah

Oh

I am

Yes

I

By the way

Wait wait wait wait wait

It's confusing

Yeah

OK

Right

We

honey

I

There you go we're gonna

He's right

Who are you It's

Yeah that was great

Yeah

the red shirt

You got a whole I said you get a t-shirt

on you're gonna drop it down

plugged all the way in

OK

Go

pull that pull that

Yeah

All good

There we go

I'm just gonna put that on there for you

Um you wanna

Sorry I'm I'm gonna try it

No you're fine

It's not you're not you're not looking up too much

I appreciate that

Do you want her right here I was gonna see

if we can kind of get the um so I'm

moving

OK great

Hold on

Yeah let me not fall

Great

All right

Uh fantastic

So Jessica first question always the hardest one

If I could have you say and spell your first

and last name and give me your time

Uh my name is Jessica Boone

Jessica J E S S I C A Boone B

00 N E

Um I'm an autism and behavior support teacher at Enlow

High School

That does not sound like an easy job

It is not

It's a challenge every single day

I wake up and don't know what to expect um

coming in to support my students

Yeah yeah um

Special education is sort of one of those areas that

I think is always particularly stretched thin

I mean is that something that you have experienced on

a daily basis and how does that kind of manifest

in your job Special ed has been in a crisis

for a long time

I would say the last 11 years that I've been

in special ed each year gets progressively harder but right

now we are absolutely seeing the breaking point

The lack of funding in special education the lack of

resources in special education is negatively impacting our students but

it's also negatively impacting every single student in Wake County

This is a bigger issue than what a lot of

people realize

So Jessica why are you here today to say just

that

Um we need to fund our schools

We need to fund special education

We need to be able to provide behavior support and

academic support for our most vulnerable students um and it

needs to be more than just words

It actually needs to be in the form of actions

and providing a budget that is actually sustainable for what

we need

Yeah so obviously we're we're here in the wake of

that um first proposal that came down from Superintendent Taylor

talking about cuts to special education including 130 positions here

in the district

What was your reaction when you heard about that proposal

Um devastation

Fury heartbreak

It impacts more than just the day to day

It impacts the students and the support that they feel

and the connectedness that they become with the school if

they don't have the people there to support them

It impacts us and our ability to support them because

now our workload is increasing

And I know that the reason was given we're just

going to close the positions that are listed but we're

barely hanging on knowing that there's somebody coming and to

take away that makes it so that we cannot function

on the day to day

I mean have you gotten a chance to talk with

Superintendent Taylor and I mean if you have if you

haven't I mean what would you say to him I've

not spoken with him but I would let him know

kind of what my day looks like and the varied

expectations that I have

It's case management

It is teaching it is lesson planning

It is solving a crisis in the moment

I have students with emotional and behavioral needs so they

can't be planned and sometimes I have to go into

the other classrooms in order to provide them that support

and to kind of ask them like could you handle

that And if so could you handle it with less

funding Yes so the argument that the district has made

here is that they're being squeezed right now right between

the lack of a state budget between changes that are

happening at the federal level between sort of one-time pots

of money that have kind of run out

What do you make of that Do you understand why

they're saying they need to cut Sure they don't want

to ask for more money because it's uncomfortable and they

don't want to make

An uncomfortable conversation public

I think they're not doing their due diligence by our

students and by each and every child within the county

if they don't ask for that money

It's not on them to come up with where the

money is

It is up to the county to come up with

those funds or to say no but our board won't

even ask and that's a real problem

Jessica anything else you want to add No I think

that's all

Fantastic

How long have you been with Uh this is my

12th year

Yeah I've been at Enlow for 11 and this is

my 12th

Yeah so thank you

It was great to meet you

Yep thank you

Oh no you want this

You don't you don't want the yeah you don't want

the rest of

The night actually it might be easier to go yeah

Um Yeah

you

Power My Tyler

Union All right guys I'm we're gonna get started over

here because we're gonna val val side OK

I

can deal with

Oh

Good afternoon everyone

Thank you guys for being here today

So wonderful wonderful to see such loving caring community members

and parents being out here especially the little ones too

That's why we are here today

My name is Jeff Boose and I am a social

studies teacher from Enlo High School and a member leader

within Wake County Public Schools

Let's get down to the brass tacks

So on Tuesday March 17th Fed educators IA's excluded got

an email saying they would be cutting $18 million to

special education

That's at least 130 teacher positions and they're eliminating CCK

entirely and phasing out middle schools

Who here got that email Raise your hands

Go in here did not get that email

Raise your hands

How did that feel Let's do some shoutouts

How did that feel for those of you who received

that email Hey say it louder in the micro

What is that Spider-Man

Now the district is saying they won't make cuts to

spend

The truth is they're still signaling that they are willing

to ask for the money needed to avoid these cuts

Cuts are still very much on the table

They might be shifted some or quietly pushed through in

a few weeks once the shock has faded

Who here got an email or who has a coworker

who got an email saying that their positions will not

exist next year

Wow

Let's do a quick shame shame

Have Sed workers heard any adjustments to the changes in

allotments that they've heard about in the past week Anyone

anyone OK I'll take that as a big no

The district has said it's too late to change their

proposal so the super's proposal does still include those cuts

Is this what we need Is this what our students

deserve That's right

Each each person can only do so much and every

single educator especially every single fed educator is already stretched

well beyond their maximum capacity

The district has lost our trust so we aren't counting

on them to do the right thing absent a clear

crystal clear commitment to ask for the funding we need

And if they aren't cutting instead and they aren't asking

for money that means they're cutting $18 million somewhere and

we have no idea what they'll cut

Are we OK with that Are we OK with them

cutting just a few million from Spe Are we OK

with them just cutting a few million and also cutting

your dental insurance How about increasing class sizes across the

board A fair sound solution

The solution is for the Board of Education to just

ask the county for the money that we need

April 21st April 21st the last public budget hearing is

the next critical moment to apply pressure to win a

no cuts budget and our original Sed demands

We're going to be right back here in two weeks

on April 21st at 5 p.m. making sure they know

that this community is not OK with cuts and that

our Sed staff and students need more support

So I highly recommend right now on your phones April

21st at 5:00 p.m. we'll be back here at that

time

We started out this school year with the SE Focused

campaign because our system is already stretched beyond its limits

The workers who were with SE educators every day have

said that what workers and students need is 1 more

staffing 2 more pay 3 more protections around working conditions

Can I get a very loud cheer for those 3

demands Preventing cuts is critical but it's not enough right

now

We have students not getting the support that they need

right now

We have educators doing more crisis response than teaching

Right now we have sped educators leaving at a dizzying

rate

I'm going to ask my co-worker Jessica Boone to come

up here and share about the crisis from a SE

educator's perspective

I'll be here

We're here we're here

We got you

What y'all don't know is I have a history on

climbing on furniture chairs on top of tables to get

my classroom the way I like it because the county

does not fund that

My name is Jessica Boone

I am an AST BST so autism support behavior support

teacher

I work at EL High School

And for the last 10 years

This is my 11th year so all of my veteran

teachers out there you know we have seen this crisis

get worse each and every year

I'm here to tell you a little bit about my

story and to ask the county to actually fund our

schools and what we really need today

Let me check my notes

Right now we we rank 72 out of 100 in

our effort to build public education

Wake County is the richest county in the state

That is unacceptable

It is unconscionable that the district is even entertaining $18

million in cuts to special education when Doctor Taylor proposed

the Wake County budget

Wake County is only asking for $25 million of a

budget increase which is less than we have received in

the last 4 years

That lack of funding does not just impact special education

students which I teach day to day

It impacts every single student that we see every single

day

The money exists here to fund our schools

A property tax increase which nobody wants to hear about

but a tiny one at 0.015% would help fully fund

our schools

Recently it was proposed that they were going to be

in an $18 million deficit and cut 130 of our

positions in special education

That is not

We are overworked

We are tired

We have every day put our heart and soul into

our positions and to disrespect us in that way and

send an email that wasn't even fully researched is not

OK

Let me be clear

Before the cuts were proposed our departments have been functioning

in a state of crisis for more than I've been

a teacher but I've seen it get worse every single

day

As I mentioned I work at EO

I am an autism and behavior support teacher but I

have also taught in-class resource and academic curriculum assistance or

CCR

I was a department chair

I have felt that stress

I know that pain

I am speaking from my experience right A normal day

for me involves 1 to 12 crises

I am responsible for handling those helping students regulate helping

them process their emotions helping them learn their academics with

uh within a blink of an eye of a behavior

For those of you in the classroom you know what

that looks like

I am also responsible for case management data collection meetings

Control of set meetings

Educating a lot of our administrators on what the laws

and the policies require us to do within the school

I answer questions

I help students that are not my students because they

also have behaviors and that is also part of my

job

Hey you're in the back

I have to create lessons that align to each and

every IEP goal for each and every student I serve

to give people an idea of what that looks like

that could be 100 goals in a week 100 lessons

in a week

I am required to know all the responsibilities written in

my handbook and to discharge them appropriately

It is not OK to have a bad day or

have an emotion

It is not OK to be worried about funding when

I go into work and whether or not I'm going

to have the appropriate special education support to respond to

those behaviors

For those of you in the classroom you all know

a behavior can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5

hours

It is not set in stone and if we don't

have the appropriate staffing every other student who requires services

in that time are not getting their services because we

are handling another service

You teach there too Is that's part of it you

know you gotta get that in somehow huh That only

happens on Wednesday

All these

All of the meetings all of the documentation requirements the

lawsuits that are pouring in and will continue to do

so without the appropriate funding

The lack of additional behavior support for regular ed parents

or teachers and special ed teachers is going to increase

if we don't get that funding

It's taking away the time that we do have to

provide those appropriate services to everybody else that we are

required to do so

Our special education staff is already stretched to our limits

If the district does not invest now and invest more

Our most vulnerable students are going to be experiencing lifelong

consequences but even more than that every single student in

this district will have lifelong consequences of not getting the

education they deserve which is why we're here

And back to Jeff

Oh

All right

The wakeway

Is that the Board of Education never asked the county

commission for more money than the county has signaled they

are willing to give

The Wakeway is a path to austerity and absolute betrayal