Teachers and parents urge Wake board to seek county funding to avert special-education cuts

Dozens of Wake County educators and parents told the Wake County Board of Education on April 26 that special-education staffing and supports are at a breaking point and urged the board to ask county commissioners for more money rather than accept cuts.

Teachers, counselors and school psychologists brought jars of “pom-poms” representing unpaid hours and described widespread unpaid overtime that they say undermines services and drives turnover. "When case loads are too high, errors increase," said Sarah Johnson, a special-education teacher at Willow Spring High School, adding that understaffing sends the district into a cycle of reactive spending on legal fees and corrective actions. Christina Cole, the union president who summarized the visual tally, said the display represented 3,346 unpaid hours across 24 schools — an estimate she said equals about 83 missing full-time positions.

Speakers gave dozens of school-level tallies and examples of work taken home for IEPs, progress monitoring, meetings and behavioral crises. "These positions are being cut; our staff are being stretched to the limits," said Vivian Vale, a Brotten High School special-education teacher, describing lost halftime positions at her school. Multiple teachers asked the board to include the union’s seven recommendations for special-education and behavior support in the district’s funding request to Wake County.

Several commenters urged the board to ask the county for a modest property-tax increase to stabilize staffing. "A tiny property tax can generate the funding that we need to change thousands of lives for the better," Vale said. Others connected facility and climate problems — such as malfunctioning air conditioning — to increased behavioral incidents and staff burnout.

Superintendent Dr. Taylor responded that district staff had worked to identify $10 million to avoid cuts to special education and reiterated that the district has not reduced special-education funding in its proposal. "I want to be clear: we have not made cuts to special education," he said, and thanked staff for their extra hours.

Not all public comments focused on special education. A parent urged discontinuing the 1:1 Chromebook model at the elementary level, citing screen-time and developmental concerns, and another commenter asked the district to develop clear policies governing student use of artificial-intelligence tools.

Votes at a glance
- Agenda approval: motion approved unanimously earlier in the meeting.
- Consent agenda: passed 8–1.
- Lexia contract amendment (language-essentials professional learning, Senate Bill 387 alignment): approved unanimously.
- HR recommendations (as amended): approved; board then returned to closed session by unanimous vote.

What’s next
Board members and the superintendent referenced continued engagement with county commissioners and signaled participation in May 1 advocacy at Jones Street to press the General Assembly on state funding. The superintendent said schools would communicate with staff about any school-level allocation changes and invited teachers to follow up with school or central staff for clarification.

Attribution: Quotes and specific claims in this article are attributed only to speakers who identified themselves during the public-comment period or to board members and administrators who spoke on the record at the meeting.