Parents and educators from one of San Luis Obispo’s most remote communities told the Atascadero Unified School District (AUSD) board on April 21 that a proposed teacher cut at Carrisa Plains Elementary would deepen inequalities for rural students already facing long commutes and limited resources.
During public comment at the board meeting, speaker after speaker pointed to the same concern: One teacher cannot effectively serve six grade levels.
“What we’d like to do is keep two staff,” said instructional aide Debbie Twisselman, who has worked in the district for more than 30 years. “We’d like to keep two teachers at the district at Carrisa Plains School because as we know with six grades, it’s hard for one teacher to teach that.”
Twisselman described what a single-teacher model would look like in practice.
“If you have one teacher teaching six grades, that’s 10 minutes per subject per grade,” she said. “If you can learn in 10 minutes, you don’t need a teacher.”
Currently, Carrisa Plains splits students into two classrooms—typically kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth—allowing for more focused instruction. Parents said that structure is finally working after years of inconsistency.
“Our K-2 students, including my own daughter, need structure and real instruction and now they finally have it,” parent Adriane Twisselman said. “At the same time, our 3-5 teacher is also excelling. Both classrooms are working. If we lose this second teacher, you’re asking one person to teach six grade levels. That’s not sustainable and it doesn’t serve our students.”
The proposed cut would return the school to a model that educators said has repeatedly failed.
“Over the past 15 years, five separate teachers have been hired to teach the entire core curriculum for all grades,” current Carrisa Plains teacher Lisa Fegley said. “All five … reported … that being the sole educator for all six grades is too demanding of a job for one person.”
Each of those teachers left the position after a year, she said.
“AUSD has attempted running Carrisa Plains with just a single educator,” Fegley said. “Five times, the feedback … has consistently been, ‘It’s an impossible feat.’”
She told the board that the challenge is not class size, but the scope of instruction.
“The issue is the number of standards that one teacher must cover for each grade level,” she said. Expecting one teacher to divide time evenly across six grades means “each grade only receives one-sixth of the teacher’s attention each day,” she added. “This expectation does not align with our mission, vision, or core values, which states, ‘We are dedicated and committed to excellence, and we aim to produce the top students of the nation who are college, career, and citizenship ready.’”
Parents also pointed to the strain placed on teachers. Without a second instructor, educators have previously worked “12 to 16 hours daily teaching and preparing curriculum,” Adriane said, calling the model “not sustainable.”
Carrisa Plains Elementary sits about 50 miles from Atascadero, requiring long daily commutes along Highway 58. One teacher, Adriane said, “has shown incredible dedication, driving nearly 100 miles a day when provided housing was not yet livable, still showing up for our kids every day. That commitment matters, and it’s making a difference.”
Recently, the commute turned dangerous.
“Mrs. Fegley was recently involved in a car accident on Highway 58 while traveling to teach at Carrisa Plains Elementary,” former Carrisa Plains student Gregory Nelson told New Times in an email. “Parents have long raised concerns about transportation safety—both on the road and on the bus. Despite multiple requests to the board and superintendent to agendize these concerns in open session, the issue has not yet been taken up.”
In August, Nelson filed a lawsuit against AUSD, requesting an injunction that would force Atascadero Unified to reopen Carrisa Plains school to junior high students. Nelson graduated from Carrisa Plains in 1988 and Atascadero High School in 1992.
As of April 21, the board had not taken action on the staffing proposal, and it remains unclear when the issue will come forward for a vote.
“Our students deserve equal access to quality education regardless of geography,” Adriane said. “We’re not asking for more. We’re asking for what’s fair.” ∆
This article appears in April 23-30, 2026.