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At the Feb. 6 meeting of the Lexington School Board, parents expressed concerns about one of Waddell Elementary’s fourth grade classes, which was then without a fulltime teacher.
The class was formerly taught by Lizzy Braman, who left mid-year.
“I have no hard feeling towards my child’s former teacher. I respect and understand there were personal reasons she left midyear,” Kate Macey told the School Board. “My concern is a class without a licensed teacher for an indefinite period of time.”
Macey said communication has been lacking.
“What steps are being taken to hire a new teacher in a timely fashion? What measures will be taken to ensure this doesn’t ever happen again? What is the recruitment and retention plan?” she asked.
Another parent, Megan Ferguson, also asked the Board for more communication.
“Although it is my understanding that Mrs. Braman packed up her belongings in December, we were notified on January 31 that she was not returning,” she said at the meeting.
She shared her concerns about a lack of consistency and its effect on students.
“Continuity in the classroom has been lacking,” Ferguson said. “I’m less concerned about the learning objectives than I am about the general mental and emotional wellbeing of the students.”
According to district Superintendent Rebecca Walters, a decision has been made to move these students into Waddell’s other fourth grade classes.
“The class’s teacher, Mrs. Braman, has made the decision not to return to teach fourth grade this school year,” she told The News-Gazette last week.
“We have had a substitute in place since January, but beginning [this] week, at the suggestion of our two current fourth grade teachers, the students in this class will join the other two fourth grade classes for the remainder of the school year,” said Walters.
This year, the district will have an additional paraprofessional assisting the new, larger classes, and plans to hire a new teacher for the 2024/2025 school year.
Braman, the mother of five children in the Lexington school system, initiated a public debate about ageappropriate school library books last fall when she wrote an open letter to the School Board asking for the removal of a book from the Lylburn Downing library.
