As the Saugus Union School District continues to grapple with student behavior issues — and how best to solve them — disagreements have arisen over which approaches will work best.
And, in a recent board meeting, some teachers and community members expressed their displeasure with one of those approaches, as the district contemplated hiring two teachers on special assignment, also known as TOSAs, for social-emotional learning to assist student behavior challenges.
Many teachers said they don’t think hiring two TOSAs to help schools tackle student behavior and social emotional issues would be beneficial. Instead, according to a Saugus Teachers Association survey, many said the funds should be spent on more classroom aides, intervention teachers, and direct support inside the classroom.
Community members and teachers also brought attention to the removal of a presentation slide in relation to TOSAs that had been set to be shown at the May 5 governing board meeting, which they argued was skewed.
The Saugus Teachers Association SEL TOSA survey received 290 responses, and an “overwhelming majority of responses state that SEL TOSAs are not needed and represent a waste of money, arguing that funds could be better spent elsewhere,” it stated.
The survey findings and responses were 20 pages in length, according to a copy of the survey provided to The Signal.
The survey also found that teachers had a concern over lack of teacher involvement and input in decision making, “with some believing that district’s decisions are arbitrary or ‘top-down’ and that the process for seeking feedback is merely protocol,” the survey read.
“The cabinet took the STA data and skewed it. Apparently, in an attempt to make it look like we are in support of that proposal, when nothing could be further from the truth,” teacher Ingrid Boydston said during public comment of the May 5 meeting. “We made it really super clear that we do not believe that creating SEL TOSA positions will help us with our big behavior crisis at all.”
Boydston was referring to a slide that stated 91.6% of respondents said they needed better “structural support,” meaning more practical help and systems in place, but teachers wanted less general advice or training sessions, and more people physically helping in the classroom.
Saugus Teachers Association President Linda Valdes mentioned the survey and slide during her board report and questioned the data’s integrity.
“How do you tell a community of stakeholders that the data we reported out from our STA survey at the last board meeting was misused and misrepresented by the district, what seemed to be in order to support their wants instead of the needs of the teachers?” Valdes said in the May 5 meeting.
Valdes said she was told that an artificial intelligence program was used to organize the information and she wasn’t sure if the alteration occurred because of AI, and whether district personnel failed to review it before it was published on the agenda.
“Either way, the concerns came from members almost immediately when they saw the original presentation,” Valdes said. Concerned teachers started to reach out to her immediately, stating that the deleted slide contained data in relation to a question that participants weren’t asked when filling out the survey.
Other comments on the survey included: “full time behaviorist at each site,” “intervention support is very much needed!! Teachers are overworked and exhausted from the strict requirements of intervention,” “INTERVENTION TOSA or support! We need more credentialed teachers at each site for intervention in all grades!”
During her report, Valdes also stated that the supplemental funding set to be used for the two TOSA positions is intended to be used to support English language learners, foster youth, and low socioeconomic students. Justifying how those student demographics aligned with the two TOSA positions didn’t seem feasible, she said, sounding alarmed about a possible misuse of funds.
Later in the meeting, Edwin Clement, assistant superintendent of student services, and Nick Heinlein, assistant superintendent of business services, responded to that statement following trustee Anna Griese’s request for clarification on how the funds for two TOSA positions can be paid for through supplemental funding.
According to Clement, while funds are directed toward specific needs, they indirectly benefit all students.
“We say it every time we present, all students may benefit. It is going to address the needs of language learners. It is going to address the needs of the students living in poverty, or the foster youth or the homeless students,” Clement said, and added that the Los Angeles County Office of Education and the state heavily audit such information. The county office has also used the Saugus district’s information as a lead example for others, he added.
“I do have faith that we are well within compliance, and I have no qualms with how we are spending that money. We are very diligent with that,” Clement said.
Heinlein also added that if the district received a different type of funding, called “concentration grants,” the district would have to use the money in a very targeted and specific way directly for students considered low income, English learners, foster youth, or homeless students.
Michelle Barries, assistant superintendent of student support services, addressed the removed slide during her report to the board, and said that the intention of the information wasn’t to skew the data or mislead people.
“There were several edits of that presentation, and then when Ms. Valdes brought the concerns to our attention. Ms. [Tonya] Nowakowski and myself, we had created that presentation, I saw where her concerns were coming from and I decided to remove that slide because that wasn’t the intent,” Barries said. Nowakowski is the district’s director of student support services.
“The intent was really to show that teachers had concerns, and the graphic that was there really did not match that,” Barries added.
Following Barries’ TOSA presentation aimed at addressing social emotional learning and behavior issues, one governing board trustee questioned the data while others stated they didn’t believe it would be the best approach to effectively tackle the problem.
Griese said she didn’t trust the presentation information due to the removed slide and alleged skewed information.
“It is a huge concern and I really can’t get beyond the many manipulations of the data in order to get to this revised presentation. I don’t trust the information on even the first slide,” she said.
According to the presentation, the first slide stated that 56% of staff reported feeling positive about classroom behavior and student growth mindset sits at just 31%, placing the district in the bottom 10th percentile nationally. Data used for the information presented was from the 2024-25 Connectedness Survey, which Griese also stated was outdated, and assumed that some of the data has improved since then.
She also said that two TOSAs servicing over 9,000 students across all 15 school sites did not seem feasible when the district hasn’t created a full plan to address behaviors.
“I agree that two people, two teachers, doing this is not going to make a dent. I don’t think it’s enough to do anything really,” trustee Patti Garibay said, adding that she could see how it would be helpful for new teachers, but many with the Saugus district have been teaching there for years.
“We need more support in the classroom, we need to help the kids that are dysregulated or that need to get back so that we can teach them. This doesn’t guarantee that somebody is going to be around when that student is having some need,” Garibay added.
With Robert Hernandez set to begin his tenure on July 1 as the district’s new superintendent, Garibay stated that the board should wait to allow him to “soak it all in to figure out what’s the biggest need,” she said.
Trustee Christopher Trunkey brought up one suggestion about the possibility of an intervention professional for every grade level at all school sites.
If the district were to move forward with the decision, it would add an estimated 100 new employees. According to Heinlein, a paraeducator costs approximately $50,000 to $60,000 annually, which would place the district’s expenditures at more than $5 million.
Trustee Katherine Cooper said she didn’t expect to see many responses in the survey feedback requesting academic intervention, over behavior intervention. One comment she found alarming requested more intervention in grades 3 to 6 because they weren’t benefiting from the TK and K interventions.
Governing board President Matthew Watson also said he didn’t think the TOSAs were the best approach to tackle behavior problems.
“I’m just not convinced that two is going to be enough. To be clear, this is not an issue that’s going to get a solve, right? Kids misbehave,” Watson said. “I’ve stated that I hope that we as a district can get at the forefront of the issues of student behavior, and I’m still hopeful that we can. I’m just not convinced that, right now, this is going to have an impact that we hope.”
