Dear PPS Board Members and Administration,
As parents of PPS students, we’ve had to make painful, but necessary compromises this year, including navigating teacher strikes, program funding shortfalls and inclement weather closures.
We understand these compromises directly impact budgeting – however, we cannot overstate our collective outrage resulting from your decision to cut the CSA position across several PPS middle schools. At best, this decision represents reckless disregard for the safety and well-being of our children. At worst, it will represent the moment that PPS showed gross negligence. Unfortunately, these types of conclusions usually only come AFTER a serious incident has taken place.
Despite the clearly outlined recommendations in the PPS Safety and Security Taskforce Recommendations (May 2023), to provide a minimum of one Campus Safety Associate (CSA) at each PPS middle school,” AND, your commitment to fund those positions, PPS has done the following:
Approved leave for the West Sylvan Middle School (WSMS) CSA from JAN-APRIL 2024 without providing a substitute.
Cut the position of CSA for the 2024-2025 school year at West Sylvan Middle School and several other middle schools deemed not ‘high priority’ (your words, not ours).
For the few months that West Sylvan had a CSA this year, the CSA on our campus was a necessary and productive member of our campus community. In a world of imperfect solutions, this one worked -- students felt safer, serious behavioral incidents decreased and parents felt more at ease. The CSA became a very important, and critical, role at WSMS.
To quote your own 2023 Safety and Security Report, "Schools should never prompt anyone to question their safety or feel fear and anxiety. Regardless of what is happening in our broader city, our school settings should be positive learning environments that promote a sense of care, belonging, and safety."
Your recent decision has made many middle school students and parents unequivocally question the safety of our students. Since allowing leave without providing a substitute for the CSA at WSMS, behavior incidents have increased leading directly to heightened student anxiety and classroom disruption.
PPS's decision to discontinue the CSA position at many middle schools sends a very clear message: Student safety in middle schools is NOT a priority for PPS.
Our coalition of stakeholders and parents, demands this decision be reversed and that the district fulfills its own taskforce’s recommendations for minimum CSA staffing. The safety of each and every middle school student should be a PPS priority.
This is not an equity issue, this is basic human right – all students deserve to feel safe at school and all parents deserve to feel safe sending their children to every PPS campus.
Thank you,
Parent of West Sylvan Middle School Student
