The Des Moines School Board recently laid off numerous community school coordinators, who communicate with students and parents to strengthen the relationships between families and schools. The school district fired 42 community school coordinators, and several teachers, students, and parents showed up to the school board meeting the past week to express their opposition to the school board’s decision. The individuals stated the importance of community school coordinators and asked for the school board to rehire the community school coordinators. After the meeting, the school board responded that there was not enough funds in the district budget to fund the community school coordinators. The majority of the salaries for the community school coordinators were previously funded by federal COVID-19 funds, but the funds will run out this year.
See "Families and teachers express opposition to layoff of community school coordinators at Des Moines School Board", Samantha Hernandez, Des Moines Register, February 22, 2024