LBUSD will revisit the issue March 6 to learn more about what the support plan will be moving forward. Behavior Intervention Supervisors urged the board to reconsider.
The Long Beach Unified School District is considering slashing roles that serve students with disabilities due to budget cuts and funding issues.
During its Feb. 21 meeting, the LBUSD board was presented a classified personnel report to approve. The report included recent appointments and resignations, but also a section on “abolishments.” If approved, the positions on this list would be at risk of being cut, including six Behavior Intervention Supervisors in special education.
Behavior Intervention Supervisors are responsible for providing behavior support for students with disabilities. This can look like attending Individualized Education Program meetings and helping teachers with classroom management. They are also first responders when students leave school unattended.
“We were told that the school site or counselors could do our jobs. We boast equity and inclusion in Long Beach yet move forward without a solid plan to meet the needs of at least 192 students that we know of.”
April Acuña, behavior intervention supervisor for LBUSD and a board-certified behavioral analyst
According to Deputy Superintendent Tiffany Brown, the board’s approval of the report does not mean the positions are officially terminated, but rather that the district will begin notifying the people in those positions that they are at risk of losing their jobs.
However, upon a motion from board member Juan Benitez, the approval vote for the section on abolishing those six positions was tabled for the March 6 meeting.
“Not taking away all the work that’s been done to make this very difficult and strategic decision,” Benitez said. “But I want to be able to be responsive to caregivers and parents to make sure that I’m understanding how we’re going to mitigate [this].”
April Acuña is a behavior intervention supervisor for the district and a board-certified behavioral analyst. She said she was surprised not only about the potential of the positions being abolished but also what she described as a lack of understanding about what her position does.
“We act as liaisons between contracted agencies and the district personnel in order to advocate on behalf of our students for a least restrictive environment,” Acuña said. “Like many roles, ours is multifaceted and very valuable to the success of our students.”
There are currently 24 Behavior Intervention Supervisor positions in the district, and the abolishment would impact six people—those with the least seniority. Behavior Intervention Supervisors hired on contract will be removed before those who are district staff, according to Assistant Superintendent of School Support Services Erin Simon.
She also said that the remaining 18 positions will continue to carry out some of the role responsibilities and that the district is looking at other positions that could take on some of the workload.
“It’s almost like a repurposing of some of our positions as well within the office in order to address behaviors based on skill sets and expertise,” Simon said. “There’s a bigger plan in regards to the behaviors that we’re seeing within our system that need to be addressed at a larger scale.”
Acuña said that when she and the rest of her team asked about the district’s plan moving forward, they were told there was no plan.
“We were told that the school site or counselors could do our jobs,” Acuña said. “We boast equity and inclusion in Long Beach yet move forward without a solid plan to meet the needs of at least 192 students that we know of.”
The report cites the positions are at risk of being abolished because of “lack of work/lack of funds.”
“What we bring before you is not lost on us, [it] is not taken lightly,” Simon said. “We have looked at our data in order to make an educated and informed decision about ways we need to reduce and other areas that we may need to elevate.”
Simon and Brown, during the meeting, spoke about the need to broaden the district’s approach to student behavior and expand from focusing strictly on students with disabilities—particularly autism—and address general education students as well.
“We’re looking at additions in other spaces where we can have behaviorists that also bring forward more general skills and the ability to look at skills through a trauma-informed lens, not just through the lens of a professional that looks at a more applied behavioral analysis type of model,” Brown said.
Jessica Meza has been working at LBUSD for almost 14 years. She began as a behavior intervention assistant and became a behavior intervention supervisor after completing her Master’s degree. She expressed her disbelief that these positions may be taken away because of budget cuts and not because of a lack of need.
“These layoffs may cut expenses now, but in the long run may cost more as the investment quality, commitment and loyalty of work for students may no longer be there in the future,” Meza said.
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