PSD superintendent shares changes being made, considered since paraprofessional's arrest

Poudre School District is working on new hiring policies and has adopted additional reporting processes and supervisory procedures following the May arrest of a paraprofessional who now faces 30 felony charges of assault against a person of risk while working as a school bus attendant.

Speaking at a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Brian Kingsley laid out a series of steps the district has taken and others it is pursuing “to mitigate the risk of this ever happening again.”

Many of the changes are still just proposals that the district is working with two outside law firms and the state legislature to ensure they do not violate federal or state employment laws, he said. One of those firms, Lyons Gaddis, was assigned to the district by its insurance company to review the situation involving the paraprofessional bus attendant, Tyler Zanella, who is facing nearly 130 criminal charges for alleged harassment and assault of six nonverbal, special-needs students on a PSD bus.

Zanella was hired by the district in August 2022 despite having pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse in a 2012 case in Adams County. That misdemeanor is not one that PSD could use to legally bar him from employment under Colorado law, PSD spokesperson Madeline Noblett said.

As a result, school board members are working with the Colorado General Assembly to see if and how those laws can be changed.

During public comment a few minutes later, four parents of special-needs students who had signed up in advance to speak expressed anger and outrage at Kingsley and the Board of Education for the policies, procedures and hiring processes that led to the hiring of Zanella, his assignment working on buses serving children with special needs, mandatory-reporter training of PSD employees and the lack of a regular process to review surveillance video from buses.

More: Former Poudre School District paraprofessional accused of assaulting students out on bond

The charges against Zanella stem from video review by district security staff and Fort Collins Police that only took place after a complaint was made.

“What part of Colorado law, federal law or best HR practices states that a school must not only hire a known child predator when they apply but must provide them a job working with at-risk, nonverbal, elementary-age children,” said the parent of one of the victims of Zanella's alleged abuse. “… My family and at least four other families are living with the direct consequences of Tyler abusing children on the school’s dime.”

Noting that the actions Zanella is accused of committing “are theirs and theirs alone and do not represent who we are in this district,” Kingsley said, “My heart, our collective heart, hurt for our students and our families who were directly impacted. I know that we cannot take away their pain; I can’t take away their pain, and that’s unsettling. But we have and will continue working as a team to mitigate the risk of this ever happening again.”

The district's human resources and transportation directors both resigned in June and have since been replaced.

Another outside law firm, Employers Council, is reviewing a hiring and background-check proposal by PSD that would make an individual with certain misdemeanor charges that involve a child victim “ineligible to work in certain positions, particularly those with direct student contact unless the employee would always be with other adults while in contact with students,” Kingsley said.

“I must stress that this proposal is still under review to determine whether it is within the bounds of the state and federal employment laws and not yet in effect in PSD,” he said.

Employers Council, which has an office in Loveland, specializes in employment law, compliance and human resources practices and works with thousands of employers in the western U.S., including many public entities, according to its website.

It is also reviewing the district’s training process to ensure all employees are aware that they are mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect under Colorado law and what that responsibility requires. PSD requires new staff to take the online training provided by the state as soon as possible after they are hired, Noblett said, and existing employees to take that training annually.

Employers Council is also reviewing PSD’s policies on nepotism, staff conduct and conflicts of interest, along with working with the district on a requirement that all employees notify PSD when they are charged with any criminal offense. When Zanella was arrested May 24 on charges of assaulting and harassing PSD students, he was serving a 10-day jail sentence for an unrelated driving under the influence offense that occurred just days before he began working for PSD last August.

All PSD bus drivers and their aides are undergoing training with the district’s integrated services staff this week and next “that focuses on supporting every student as an individual, as well as building connections with those students,” Kingsley said.

Integrated services staff will lead training courses about supporting students with certain medical conditions, including seizures and diabetes; early childhood education support, focusing on students who are pre- and nonverbal, individualized education plans, individualized transportation plans, and to work together on ways to enhance and incentivize positive behavior reinforcement, he said.

More: Legal documents reveal new details of abuse case against PSD bus paraprofessional

Drivers on buses transporting students with special needs will also contact parents and guardians to talk and create a connection that the district hopes will help the drivers better understand the unique needs of each child and help the children feel safe and supported on their bus, he said.

The district is also requiring its transportation supervisors to review a minimum of one hour of video surveillance from buses each week, with a focus on routes that have new staff members and that serve those with special needs, particularly those who are pre- and nonverbal.

Transportation department staff will be attending back-to-school events in an effort to build relationships and improve communication with students, their families and school staff.

Changes are also being made in how the district receives and responds to reports of transportation concerns in an effort to ensure timely investigations and improve communication with those making reports. PSD will monitor its customer support center phone line, 970-490-3333, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Kingsley said. And reports involving transportation will go directly to the director of transportation, with supervisors required to investigate and communicate with all families who make a report.

The district is also posting QR codes in restrooms and common workspaces in its transportation department that link to a site where anonymous concerns can be reported directly to the director of transportation.

That reporting mechanism, Kingsley said, is not a substitute or alternative to the state’s mandatory-reporter requirements, but rather an additional platform where concerns can be raised.

He went on to note that students, family members and others in the community should continue to use the “See Something, Say Something” link at the top of the PSD website, psdschools.org, to report concerns anonymously through the state’s Safe2Tell program or through the district’s incident reporting tool.

Kingsley said the district is seeking an impartial third party with expertise in school transportation to review those actions and all other district transportation processes, policies and protocols.

“Some may feel like we’re taking the right steps, and others may feel like that is not enough, and it’s not fast enough,” Kingsley said. “We have made strides in the right direction, but our work is not done. It will be ongoing.”

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: PSD superintendent outlines changes since paraprofessional's arrest