Schools

Superintendent: District Needs Ten More Teachers Next School Year

Class sizes could be made smaller as a result.

School District of the Chathams Superintendent Jim O'Neill recommended the school district add 10 teachers next year in an effort to reduce swelling class sizes in the middle school and high school.

O'Neill made the recommendation during a budget presentation by Business Administrator Ralph Goodwin at a district Board of Education meeting Monday.

The district must come up with a preliminary draft of a budget by March 22 before the board approves a budget March 29. The public will then vote on the budget April 20.

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O'Neill said building administrators have requested 18 additional teachers, as a whole, for next school year. That increase would take into account retirements, meaning they have a requested a net increase of 18.

But O'Neill said retaining a net of 10 additional instructors would be the most prudent path.

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"Trying to do what we need to do rather than what we like to do has played well with the public," he said.

His comments came on the heels of a discussion about increasing enrollment in the district's schools. O'Neill said there are lots of classes in the the middle school and high school that have more than 25 students, which he said is less than ideal. Of the 10 new theoretical teachers, four would be in the high school, four would be in the middle school and two would be in the elementary schools.

The extra personnel would cost the district $600,000.

Board members asked O'Neill a number of questions during the presentation. Richard Connors, for example, asked what kind of effect hiring no new teachers would have on the district. And Alan Routh asked if it made sense to ask the public, on a ballot question, if it wanted eight teachers (in addition to the 10) to bring the new teacher total to 18.

"For the price of a Starbucks, you can basically hold your class size constant," Routh said.

O'Neill said that hiring no new teachers could cause some classes to balloon to 30 students. He did not comment on Routh's proposal, though board member Steve Barna noted that "there are already many who have given up that Starbucks a day."

To offset the increase in teacher salaries, Goodwin said the district could reduce expenses in a number of areas. It has found places where it could cut $500,000 from its capital projects budget, about $129,000 from its equipment expenses, $250,000 from its transportation costs, $180,000 from its staff turnover expenses and $200,000 from health benefit costs. All that could save the district close to $1.3 million next year.

District administrators emphasized, however, that the additional 10 teachers would not completely solve the problem. They did say, however, that they would help begin to reduce class sizes.

But Goodwin emphasized that these decisions are ultimately up to the board. During his presentation, he presented the board with four budget options that took into account zero, 2, 4 and 6 percent increases in next year's tax levy.

All of those options took into account a 15 percent decrease in state aid for next year. Goodwin said the district will know exactly how much money it will receive in state aid when the state releases those numbers March 18, but the district is planning on the 15 percent reductions.

He noted, however, that state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said that as a whole, across the state, aid would go down by 15 percent. But he said some districts could potentially see an increase in that department.

All in all, he said, it's difficult to fully plan on next year without knowing those numbers.

"This is a very strange way to run a business," Goodwin said.

As it stands right now, with the 15 percent decrease accounted for, a zero percent tax levy increase would mean $2.6 million in budget cuts for next year. A 2 percent increase would result in $1.6 million in cuts, a 4 percent increase would mean $658,000 in reductions and a 6 percent increase would result in a budget surplus of $300,000.


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