April 12, 2011 

Public Hearing on the 2011-12 School District Budget

via

Open Topics Forum 

After meeting with citizens to listen to their concerns and recommendations regarding the 2011-12 budget, members of the Board of Education shared summaries of their groups' discussions with the community. Many common items of concern and recommendations were mentioned across the six groups. With that in mind, Superintendent Dr. Shine has categorized the following responses based on those major themes, noting specific school references where appropriate. 

Enrollment and Class Size

Each year school district enrollment is reported to the State Education Department, the Board of Education and Lloyd Bishop, Ph.D., of Bishop Associates, who complete an enrollment analysis and make projections for the next ten years. The projections are based on the premise that what happened in the past will happen in the future, with high, average and low projections based on average kindergarten to birth rate ratios over a five-year period, as well as school-by-school and grade level-by-grade level  migration ratios. Every once in a while past trends do not repeat, and this year was one of those years; that is, actual enrollment in September 2010 was 40 students over projection and 32 additional students enrolled during the school year. If those 72 students enroll at the elementary schools and are prorated and distributed over the 77 sections, there would be very little impact on class size. If the new arrivals do not follow that pattern and move into the schools with grade levels that are at the upper end of the class size guidelines [22], it can and does cause concern. If the 72 students were prorated and distributed across all 13 grade levels, the impact would, of course, be negligible. Again, that is not how it usually happens and it did not happen that way this year.

At the elementary schools, especially Midland and Osborn, there have been wide swings of enrollment based on where people buy or rent homes and how the in-out migration works over a period of years. Within the past 10 years the Board approved changes in attendance zones to relieve enrollment growth pressure at Midland School. The Board also used a committee to review the pros and cons of a different grade level configuration: K-1; 2-3; 4-5 and concluded that a change of organization was not best for Rye. Now the unanticipated growth seems to be at Osborn School, the largest of the three elementary schools. In June of each year, school principals ask parents to notify them if personal circumstances will cause a change in enrollment. The administration reviews school and grade-level enrollment with the new information in June, a time when sections can be changed. The Superintendent continues to oversee enrollment numbers throughout the summer, watching for changes. If numbers jump in late August, as is often the case, the administration and Board add sections where warranted.

Some of the comments from the meeting participants were:

1.         Smaller class sizes are needed, particularly at the lower grades;

2.         Class size is impacted by the presence of English Language Learners

and students with learning disabilities in the classroom;

3.         August is too late to add sections effectively;

4.         After a certain date, consider a lottery for school assignments to control class

size;

5.         Re-consider a redistricting plan.

Teacher Aides

There were many questions about the number of teacher aides in the elementary schools, the equity of their assignment across the schools, and their supervision. Currently, the District assigns a teacher aide to each kindergarten classroom.  The school principals assign other teacher aides to supervise students' arrival in the morning, as well as during lunch and recess, and the end-of-the-day dismissal. At other times during the day, teacher aides are used to provide clerical support to grade level teachers or are assigned other responsibilities from the school principal. 

Teacher aides assigned to special education classrooms or students are guided by Individualized Education Plans [IEPs] developed by the Committee on Special Education.

In the last two years, several teacher aide positions were eliminated in order to protect class size and keep budget cuts as far away from classroom teachers and students as possible.  However, the ratio of students to general education teacher aides is 44 to 1 in each elementary school. There are 34.9 general education aides [10.3 at Midland, 9.3 at Milton and 13.3 at Osborn] in addition to 22.8 special education teacher aides and 5.4 FTE special education teaching assistants. While the enrollment has increased with new arrivals since October, the administration has not recommended the addition of any new positions. There are students moving in and moving out almost every day; however, comparing October to February the numbers are as follows: Midland +5; Milton -7; Osborn +14.

Program Protection

Several of the groups' recommendations were made to protect programs. Of the many programs that exist, the following were mentioned: 

• Protect the average child's programs, not just the Advanced Placement  Program.
• Protect the middle school's team structure.
• Protect the high school writing mentor program.
• Protect middle school and high school athletics, arts and student activities.
• Support for adding the third team at the seventh grade to protect class size.