On Jan. 16, JCPS Superintendent Brian Yearwood revealed his plan to cut schools’ mental health practitioners (MHP) in response to the district’s ongoing budget concerns. But at the Jan. 20 board meeting, the board decided not to go through with this plan and instead removed district-level funding for academic instructional coaches (AIC).
On Jan. 13, JCPS provided details to the initial draft budget that would cut $142 million. This led to concern about instructional coach positions.
Yearwood later stated that those positions are included in the cuts, since it would save the district from a $14 million loss. He also explained that he had no intention in making cuts to mental health practitioners.
On Jan. 16, Yearwood informed school principals that coaching positions will not be affected by the cuts, and that MHPs will be cut instead.
This decision has caused even more frustration within the JCPS community. A JCPS mental health practitioner wrote on a Facebook post saying that the people in these positions are the “front line” in handling student support. The news also brought out many other complaints from the community, including that this is a “horrible idea” because these practitioners are what matter most in learning environments.
The Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) held a protest against the change, which occurred on Jan. 20 before the JCPS Board Meeting. The protest occurred right outside of the VanHoose Education Center where the meeting was being held.
“The biggest importance is students safety, security and lives. There are alot of kids that self harm and talk about suicide […] and it makes me worry that without this service, our suicide rates will start to go up,” said protester Stephanie Barclay, a MHP at Ramsey Middle School.
If the motion is passed, Barclay won’t be able to find any other job in teaching due to her license in clinical social work.
“We are a little bit different from the AIC positions because they all have teacher certifications, and some of us just have our licensure, so we would have to look for jobs elsewhere,” Barclay said.
AICs have teaching degrees and are usually experienced in education. Their role is to collaborate with teachers to develop new strategies, help with curriculum and plan lessons.
But, different from AICs, JCPS has stated that they want to completely fund MHPs, and now allow schools to choose whether or not they want to fund instructional coaches.
At the board meeting, the board approved cutting funds for AICs instead of MHPs.
Based on the responses of who was present during the board meeting, there is still backlash from this decision.
Board member Taylor Everett made a strong argument to the board, asking why they can’t let schools have their own autonomy over both staff positions.
“If we’re going to give autonomy for the AICs, why not do it for all of these positions? We’re saying that you have to have an MHP, but you can purchase an AIC if you have the funds. Why are we not just saying ‘here’s your budget, you purchase what your school needs?’” Everett said.
“I was invited to provide some general input on district expenditures and possible ways to save … very late last year into the summer and very, very early in the fall, but then those meetings stopped,” Manual Principal Michael Newman said, discussing how principals and schools have been left out of choosing positions based on each school’s needs.
