I submitted our 24-25 staffing at the end of February, shortly before I went on leave. As I shared with those of you who have been able to attend Coffee Thursday or our evening engagement sessions, we have some positive news to share, but also some less positive news as we work within the staffing allocations provided to us by the district.
Staffing increases through district allocation
We have been allocated an additional classroom teacher, so that in 24-25 we will have two K classrooms and two 1st grade classrooms.
Our English as a Second Language position (ESL) has been increased to full time
We have been allocated an additional Special Education teacher, and have had an increase in our Speech and Language services to 4 days per week.
We will have a full-time Comprehensive School Psychologist next year, which is an increase from the current 2 days per week.
We will continue to have a full-time reading intervention teacher
Staffing increases through site-based decisions
Whitman is fortunate to have equity funding and Title 1 funding, which we have used to fund a variety of positions in the past. Based on identified needs and priorities for the 24-25 school year, we will be using this funding to:
Add an additional 4th/5th grade teacher in order to mitigate the impact of our high class sizes in 4th and 5th grade
Fund our Social Worker to be on campus 4 days a week
Continue to fund our PE teacher to be on campus 5 days a week to support our school climate initiatives.
Staffing decreases
Whitman students will have Music one day per week in 24-25! Unfortunately this means that we will have Art only one day a week (rather than 2 days like we do currently).
Library staffing was decreased throughout the district, so we will only have a librarian on campus 2 days a week next year. (Please see below for an important message from Mrs. Butler!)
We will be discontinuing our Student Management Specialist (SMS) position, due in part to the loss of the main funding sources for this position, and in part to overlap between this position and the newly-added Comprehensive School Psychologist position.
Our office staff will be decreasing from two full-time staff to one full-time and one part time staff member.
There is always a possibility that staffing could shift as we continue through the 24-25 budget process. As a staff we are continuing to advocate for robust staffing levels for our school, and we are happy to support you with any advocacy you would like to do as families! We will be devoting some of our Coffee Thursdays after Spring Break to discussing how we can all work together to advocate for our school community at the district level.
