MONTAGUE — Three educators voiced their concern to the Gill-Montague Regional School District School Committee Tuesday evening about the resignation of Gill Elementary’s math interventionist Lauren Steer and urged administrators to fill the vacancy.
“Lauren leaves some big shoes to fill,” said first grade teacher Jenay Hall, later adding, “It is unclear whether the district plans to post this position and even attempt to fill her shoes. I wanted to make sure the administrative team and this committee know about the impact of our math interventionist at Gill, and why not filling this position would not only be a loss, but an issue of equity among the district elementary schools.”
Steer was one of three math interventionists hired for Gill, Sheffield and Hillcrest Elementary schools under a state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Multi-Tiered System of Support Grant. The positions were created three years ago to provide extra support to students at the elementary schools who need assistance in understanding and using the math they are learning in the classroom. Each of these educators had previous teaching backgrounds in elementary education.
This grant was in partnership with the U.S. Math Recovery Council program Math Recovery, which provided in-depth training and certification to math interventionists so they could help their students at the three elementary schools gain a better handle on their early math education. The grant funding has since been expended and the positions are now supported by the school district’s budget.
Speaking on behalf of Steer, Hall and two other Gill Elementary educators detailed the improvements they’ve seen at the school since the start of the math interventionist program. Although the staff cited communication failure between Steer and a supervisor as the reason for Steer’s resignation, Steer was not present at Tuesday’s meeting to clarify.
“She wanted to stay in our district,” fifth and sixth grade math and science teacher Kelly Gobeil told the School Committee, saying that Steer’s decision to resign was one that she felt she “had no choice but to make.” “Because of what was being alluded to and her questions not being able to be answered directly by our supervisor, she needed to make the best decision for herself and for her family.
“In the larger picture, the reality is schools have had no choice but to become a business,” Gobeil continued, speaking to changes she’s noticed since she began teaching in the 1990s. “Teachers have been looked at more as a commodity that can be shifted as needed without consideration of how this may impact them, not only professionally, but emotionally and personally as well. … I’ll never have another teaching partner like Ms. Steer. But as we know, mandates have turned schools into businesses with which we all must comply. Teachers are commodities and sometimes the process cannot or may not always be as open as we like. Lauren was not only a commodity; she was a mother, a friend, sometimes a therapist and sometimes a patient, [and] a troublemaker in the best way possible.”
Gobeil added that Steer has had a “great impact” on both staff and students. She said Steer supported her in navigating the upper-level elementary math curriculum and helped identify broader math needs for students.
Hall recalled how the math interventionists have shared their accomplishments with the School Committee before. In the case of one student who scored one out of 10 in a math screening test at the start of the school year, the pupil progressed to exceeding the screening benchmark by the end of the school year.
The interventionists meet students where they’re at in their math education, target where each student needs support, use classroom data and teacher feedback to know when they need to intervene, and evaluate how students are progressing with assistance. They work with students in small group settings to individualize the support and help students understand what they are doing in math rather than just knowing how to solve a problem.
Outside of sharing the progress they’ve seen in their learning environment thanks to Steer’s work, the educators expressed frustration that news of the resignation was not communicated to students, staff and families.
“Families and staff have received no information on how the loss of this critical role will be addressed or how students’ needs will be met going forward,” kindergarten instructional assistant Lindsey Spencer said. “This absence of transparency adds to the frustration and uncertainty, making it harder for parents, teachers and students to plan and feel supported.”
Spencer also read an email from a concerned parent of students at Gill Elementary, who expressed their desire for the position to be filled.
School Committee member Steve Ellis asked about the district’s ability to fill the position and whether any steps have been taken toward hiring someone.
Gill-Montague Business and Operations Director Joanne Blier said that since the resignation came in last week, administrators haven’t had any conversations about their plans for the position. She said she will be prepared to share an operating statement outlining the available budget for the role during the October School Committee meeting.
“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t reading too much into it,” Ellis said. Blier agreed when Ellis said he sees no indication there is a financial issue keeping the district from rehiring.
As for a lack of communication regarding the resignation, committee member Wendy Thompson noted she wasn’t aware of the “uncertainty” surrounding the position until she heard the public comments during Tuesday’s meeting. Ellis said this could be a lesson in communication to the School Committee and noted that interim Superintendent Tari Thomas being away this week could have contributed to a delay.
As of publication, a job posting for a math interventionist at Gill Elementary is not available on the school district website.