A school employee told the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board of an incident this week in which a student headbutted a teacher and then bit her on the arm.
And this, she said, speaking during the public comment portion of the board meeting Wednesday, is not especially uncommon.
That testimony regarding a shortage of instructional assistants in the district, and its impact on the classroom and the district’s ability to deal with students who have behavioral issues, was followed by a discussion of possible solutions.
The meeting’s agenda called for district staff to present an update on the fourth phase of a strategic plan, which was implemented in 2022 and designed to guide staff improvement over the course of five years.
Before the fourth phase could be presented, which focused on financial and human resources, Rancho Pico Junior High School Instructional Assistant Marisa Caldwell brought to light the shortage of assistants and its impact in the classroom.
During the public comment session of the meeting, Caldwell expressed her ongoing frustration, stating she has spent the past 160 school days advocating for the reinstatement of a second instructional assistant, which serves as essential support for students and staff.
“We were told that once we were fully staffed with [instructional assistants] the second position would be restored. Yet a year later, we’re further from the goal than ever before. Not only are we understaffed but we have more vacancies than we did at the start,” Caldwell said. “It’s clear that the current strategy is not working.”
According to Caldwell, district staff were told to document and demonstrate the ongoing need for additional resources, which, “I want to be clear, we have done that. The need is evident,” she said.
She described the incident earlier that same day involving herself, another teacher, and a student, in which the student headbutted the teacher, possibly breaking the teacher’s nose, and then bit her on the arm, she said.
“This is not an isolated incident. It’s a part of a large ongoing safety issue that demands immediate attention. Our students deserve consistent qualified support and so do the staff who show up every single day for them,” Caldwell said, adding that she was disappointed in the district’s lack of urgency toward a solution that could benefit both the students and staff.
Governing board members did not address Caldwell’s public comment directly, as they do not respond to public comments on items that are not on the meeting agenda, but during the phase four strategic plan presentation, John-Anthony Muraki, director of classified personnel, stated the district is working toward solutions regarding retention rates and how to better prepare instructional assistants for onsite instruction.
In the Human Resources strategic plan section 4.3, which focuses on the need to hire classified staff in a timely manner, Muraki said online formats have been implemented to make the process more seamless.
In addition to normal training, instructional assistant candidates will receive specialized training from special education professionals, he added. This training will include practice scenarios based on common challenges faced by current district staff, which will help to better prepare candidates for their first day on site.
“Marisa (Caldwell) is a fabulous support at one of our schools and she works in a program where students at times have significant behavioral challenges,” Superintendent Michael Vierra said in a followup phone call with The Signal on Friday morning. “At times it’s difficult to find really good staff for these programs because it can be challenging. It’s a very rewarding class and we’re still able to maintain across the district pretty much a one-to-one ratio from adults to students.”
Since the governing board meeting, Vierra said the district spoke with Caldwell and has provided an additional assistant at her school site.
“What we try to do across our district is to best serve the needs of our students. We have expanded our behavioral units, which are specifically dispersed across our district to support the students that have these significant behavior challenges at times,” he said.
According to Muraki, just last year 90 potential candidates were hired for the instructional assistant position and 30 of them dropped out on the first day of onsite work. This year, 87 individuals were hired and only 61 remain.
He believes it’s due to lack of transparency of what the job entails which is why they are focusing on providing in-depth training, he said.
“I’m hoping it will alleviate some of those numbers, but ultimately, I’ve been in HR going on 20 years now and I haven’t seen so many people quit on day one before as I did last year,” Muraki said.
Vierra believes it’s been hard to fill those positions because “it’s an assignment that has to be somebody that really wants to work with students that at times have these challenges, so it takes very special individuals, but we’ve done good at maintaining a very, very good ratio.”
He added: “We’re also moving towards a more what we call, environmental approach, and that’s where we have these highly trained behavioral units that work with these sensitive situations.”
