Pressing Needs

From our district-wide needs assessment, used to craft the district budget, these are what I believe to be the most pressing needs in USD 383

• Mental health and increasing challenges in student behavior
• Student attendance and chronic absenteeism
• Food insecurity and the increasing rates of children from families without stable housing
• Recruitment and retention of a sufficient and effective workforce, especially classified personnel
• Parental involvement

All behavior is communication, and by the behavioral challenges in our schools, our students are struggling. Mental health challenges are on the rise, and who can be surprised by that? While social media/screen time is one potential cause, a child with any awareness of the state of the world is right to experience some level of anxiety. Dr. Bruce Perry, a child traumatologist, talks frequently about regulate – relate – reason. To get to reason (learning), you must first be regulated (calm, in a learning-brain state) and in relationship. Teachers report spending more time each day focusing on helping students to regulate. The district has added a number of district-wide and building-specific positions to help address this issue, but it’s still a significant challenge to learning and teacher retention.

Earlier this year, the Human Resources department conducted a salary survey for classified staff, which resulted in the first major pay increase in years. But we are still lagging behind, particularly in pay for paraeducators. One barrier to increasing this pay is the Kansas Legislature’s refusal to fulfill their statutory obligation to fund 92% of the excess costs of special education. Each year, our district moves approximately $4 million from the general fund to cover the additional costs of special education; funds that should be coming from the state. My fellow board members and I have worked hard to educate our local representatives on this issue, but it is an issue that needs advocacy from every corner of the state.

Chronic absenteeism (defined as missing more than 10% of the school year) was the highest in 2022, following the pandemic. While it has improved steadily since, it’s still too high. Society as a whole has shifted their thinking on the importance of school attendance. Tied in with this topic is declining parental involvement in schools.