Student Wealth Influences Supervision Needs, Trustee Says

Students need differing amounts of supervision based partly on their family's socioeconomic status,  Trustee Lynn Hatton said Wednesday night.

During a discussion about , the trustees considered the role campus supervisors play at middle and high schools.

The number of campus supervisors – who keep an eye on students and make sure kids are where they’re supposed to be – on the 10 middle school campuses varies, said Julie Hatchel, assistant superintendent of education services.

In looking at nonteaching positions that could be cut, administrators considered the ratio of staff to students and used Ladera Ranch Middle School as a baseline, Hatchel said.

Ladera's student population has grown over the last few years, Hatchel said, but the number of campus supervisors has been frozen.

Hatton questioned using Ladera Ranch students as the model.

“I kind of feel that Ladera Ranch Middle School ... and the makeup of that middle school, is not necessarily an example, a true example, of how many supervisors we may need at the other campuses," Hatton said. 

"It's not representative of the makeup of the other schools," she said, earning applause from the 80 or so employees who wore black to protest their possible layoffs.

Hatton offered up  in Mission Viejo as perhaps a better baseline, but added that she didn’t know its “socioeconomic makeup.”

Board President Gary Pritchard asked for clarification on what Hatton meant and whether she thought socioeconomic status determines how much supervision children need.

“It’s an equation,” Hatton said. “It’s not one thing or the other. It’s a combination of several things. I think you have to consider all that when you make a determination versus just one or the other.”

Pritchard noted, however, that state law requires supervisor staffing levels to be based solely on student enrollment.

Neither Hatton nor a spokesman for Capistrano Unified returned Patch's requests for comment.