������Ƶ

Administrators of the Special School District of St. Louis County said the moves are designed to help the district’s finances while addressing what they describe as longstanding issues with equity.

Thirty-six current special education teachers will be involuntarily moved next school year to north St. Louis County districts where needs for special educators have not been addressed as effectively as in other areas of the county.

Deputy Superintendent Kelly Grigsby said seven districts — Ferguson-Florissant, Hazelwood, Jennings, Normandy, Ritenour, Riverview Gardens and University City — will receive the “reallocated” teachers.

“All of our students deserve an opportunity to have a certified teacher providing them services, regardless of where they live in St. Louis County,” Grigsby said at a board meeting on Tuesday.

The shuffling of teachers is one of several ways administrators are working to right-size the district. Special School District went from a budget surplus of $26 million in the 2022-23 school year to . The district was $74 million in the red at the start its fiscal year, but district leaders project the deficit will lessen to $55 million by the end of the year.

Staff will be moved based on vacancy rates in each district. Any district that has a vacancy rate higher than the Special School District’s average of 9% will receive teachers moved from districts below the average.

At Riverview Gardens, for example, 13 of the 56 budgeted special education teacher positions, or 23%, are currently vacant. The district will receive 10 more special educators, cutting the vacancies to about 5%.

“This is our first step in stabilizing our vacancy rates so we can ensure all students are receiving services from certified teachers,” Grigsby said.

The Special School District will not fill 101 vacant teacher positions as well as 60 vacant paraprofessional positions. Twenty-nine speech pathologist positions will be reduced through attrition, Grigsby said.

Staffing has played a major role in Special School District’s fiscal stability.

Special School District increased staffing in recent years despite public school districts in the county losing 6,000 students between 2019 and 2024 and the number of students with IEPs, or specialized instruction plans, declining. Teacher positions meanwhile .

The district also began hiring registered behavioral technicians in 2022 and employed 196 as of October.

Personnel costs skyrocketed over the past two fiscal years, with by $52 million and $9 million, respectively.

Michael Maclin became superintendent in October 2023 after former superintendent Elizabeth Keenan was placed on leave. Keenan and the district’s board “mutually agreed to a separation“ two months later, with no public explanation for her departure.

By spring 2024, Maclin drafted a , which called for not rehiring a fifth of staff positions left vacant due to retirements or resignations each year to save the district about $49 million by 2029.

Late last year, the district started offering administrators $24,000 to resign, projecting it’d save the district about $2.3 million. This week, Grigsby said the separation incentive will reduce about $600,000 in spending.

Chief Communications Officer Jennifer Henry said Friday that about 20 administrators took advantage of the incentive, some of whom will be replaced by newcomers earning less on the district’s salary scale.