Help for teachers was the hot topic at the Kernville Union School District board meeting.
Photos and Story by Catherine Stachowiak
The Kernville Union School District board held a special meeting at Wallace Elementary School Friday, April 19.
The board discussed and voted to approve the recommendations regarding a Memorandum of Understanding MOU between the district and Kernville Union School Teachers Association (KUSTA) regarding the Achievement Leader, which is the TOSA revised job description.
At the previous board meeting there was not a sufficient quorum, to vote on that specific agenda item, because one member of the board abstained from voting on that agenda item.
Currently there are 13 Intervention Leaders and one in charge of the leaders. The positions are already existent.
There will be no change for special education in the agreement, because there is currently one teacher leader for special Ed and that is not changing. Teacher leaders are currently positioned by grade levels, one for each grade level.
Superintendent of the district, Dr. Steve Martinez said, “What we’re doing is taking those and changing them to an Achievement Leader.”
Currently teachers lead during classroom, so they’re in the classroom, teaching full time. Then they support their teachers, they attend teacher lead meetings, and they provide support to teachers after hours and before school.
Because approximately one quarter of the staff doesn’t have a credential, the district wants to provide more direct support to the teachers per grade span. The district has Achievement Leaders assigned district wide. There’s one per grade leader in the new contract.
Currently the district has a TK-1 Achievement Leader, a 2-3 Achievement Leader, a 4-5 Achievement Leader and a middle school Achievement Leader allowing them to provide more direct support, coaching and leadership at the schools. The new agreement would be more focused and more targeted toward the new people the district has hired.
The existing Teacher Leads will not have extra stipend duties any longer. The proposal is to go to 5 total full time Achievement Leaders.
We have declining enrollment. The district wants to best to mentor new people. One quarter of staff are emergency credentialed. Another percentage is clearing their credentials. The district just hired two board approved multi subject credentialed teachers. The district is providing support to the teachers so they are not overwhelmed.
The cost is an additional $9000 compensation stipend for taking on additional responsibility for a teacher lead and coach. The job description has extensive duties, a lot of extra work, above and beyond what teachers normally achieve. The school will have fewer mentors because the positions would cover that also.
The next meeting Kernville Union School District board meeting is planned for May 14 at 5pm in Kernville.
