The Pleasant Valley School District held a town hall meeting last week to answer questions about its new grade realignment, and changes in course studies.

A parent asked about reduction in the number of paraprofessionals. The district plans to keep about 38 paraprofessionals. Currently, there are about 72 within the school district.

Parent Desiree Murray said she is concerned about the reduction of paraprofessionals, especially concerning children with special needs. She said if the needs are not met for the children in special education, “it definitely affects the rest of the classroom. I am 100% for a fully inclusive school district to make sure that all children are together.”

Murray said that paraprofessionals help special needs children, which helps the teacher take care of all of the other students.

“I’m just looking at that 38 as not being sufficient,” Murray said.

Assistant to the Superintendent Rae Lin Howard said, “We are putting the most supports at our elementary levels. There are no classroom cuts there. The majority of our paraprofessionals will be moved to the PVE and PVI.”

Superintendent James Konrad said that students who need a one-to-one paraprofessional will continue to have one.

“It’s my belief that as students move up into different grade levels - and that’s what we are doing in transition - and getting ready for life beyond high school that there is a level of gradual release,” Konrad said. “We want to make sure that students have the right skills, the necessary skills to be successful because we know that they’re not going to have the same levels of support beyond high school.”

Konrad said the paraprofessionals will be needed in the elementary level where the students will be focusing on reading and writing, because reading skills impact a student’s learning in all the other subjects.

“It’s our goal to really spend time on those skills so that when they’re reading to learn, they’re actually understanding what the content is of what they’re reading,” he said. “That’s why we are trying to reallocate those resources.”

The school district plans to use flexible grouping of students to help those who need extra instruction on a subject. Konrad said paraprofessionals will work with these groups and move from one classroom to the next as needed.

The teachers will determine which students need more instruction through weekly assessments.

“It will look different at different levels, but the intention is to be flexible,” Konrad said.