Scarsdale Parents Ask BOE to Maintain Small Class Sizes

Parents crowded the Scarsdale Board of Education meeting on Monday night March 7 where a record number of apprehensive residents came to express their feelings about class sizes in the elementary school. Many came in response to a campaign by a newly formed group called the “Coalition for Scarsdale Schools” that was created in response to a potential policy change that would allow the Board to slightly increase the sizes of elementary school classes to respond to enrollment shifts. Representing the Coalition, Neil Pierson presented the Board with an online petition signed by 725 residents urging the Board to maintain the caps on class size.

Board President Jill Spieler explained that as of now, the budget calls for class sizes of no more than 22 students in grades K-3 and no more than 24 students in grades 4-5. However, if students move into the district during the summer causing a kindergarten class to have 23 rather than 22 students, the Board would like the flexibility to run the larger class rather than hire an additional teacher or ask students to attend class at another school in the district. She also explained that the Board has allowed for two new undesignated teaching positions to provide staffing next year where it is needed most. Current projections show that the high school will have 44 more students next year. Due to attrition, the high school staff has been reduced by 13 faculty members and many high school classes now have enrollments of more than 25 students.

However parents at the meeting could not be convinced. Many had moved to Scarsdale and left New York City private schools were small classes were the rule. Others were still smarting from the loss of the kindergarten call back days since all kindergarten is now full day. They fear that their children will no longer get the individual attention they need and viewed an increase in the number of students in the class as an additional impediment to one-on-one time.

Others believe that if the Board allows a gradual shift this year, by next year, with budgets under increased strain, the Board will ask for additional increases in class size. Even the President of the PT Council, Tracy Jaffe said that increasing class sizes should be a last resort.

A mother of three, Meredith Kantor said, “it’s just not right for those kids. When you hear the public outcry, it would be a mistake not to listen.” A mother of a child with learning disabilities gave an emotional plea, arguing that in the early grades small classes make it easier for teachers to spot children with issues and help them.

Debbie Franco, a mother of five asked the Board, “do any of you have children in the elementary school?” Recalling the debate over full day kindergarten last year and the discussion about class size this year, she said, “the Board of Ed is throwing us overboard!”

Dorian Glickenhaus asked the Board to look for new sources of funding and recommended that older children pay for sports and extracurricular activities so that funds could be maintained for teachers in the elementary schools. Another Mom said that “small classes are basic” and said that her children could do without sports and “take a walk “if it would allow for small classes. Anthony Zitrin asked if the Board wanted to put this policy change in front of the community in the form of a referendum and Jim Duggan assured the Board that there was no confusion on the issue and that everyone understood the choice at hand.

Sheryl Braun echoed the sentiments of many in the room, saying “I agree that maintaining the decade long cap on class size it extremely important. I have two children in second grade and believe they benefit from more individualized attention in the classroom. Most people living in Scarsdale have moved here because of the excellent schools and facilities and we pay high taxes for these benefits. If the class size goes up, some people would consider moving to other communities that also have good schools, but not great schools. What will the increase in class size do to our real estate market and our tax base? “

Since Monday nights meeting also included the full presentation of the budget for the 2011-2012 school year, the meeting went very late into the night. Spieler, Superintendant McGill and the Board were courteous and open to comments and gave everyone a chance to air their views but asked them to limit their comments to three minutes. Earlier this year, the Board heard from a very vocal group who wanted to cut expenses and reduce taxes. In contrast, this contingent seemed determined to fund the schools and a top-notch education.

Undoubtedly the number of parents in attendance and their passionate speeches will have an impact on the Board’s decisions for the coming year. The Board is in the challenging position of meeting the needs of the youngest children without leaving high school students in classes of 25-30 students. The community will learn more at upcoming meetings that have been set up to review the proposed budget before the May 17th vote.

Here is a note from School Board President Jill Spieler clarifying some of the information in the piece above:

The current proposal is that the board would decide this spring about how it would like to proceed in adding extra sections if the population exceeds current caps. We do not know if this will occur, and we will not know actual numbers until the summer. The August 15 deadline remains the same.

No student who is a resident would be asked to move to another elementary school. What I referred to on Monday was a current policy already in place in respect to District staff whose children attend Scarsdale Schools. This policy states that the District would move any child of staff members before we would hire an additional teacher for section breaks at current class size practice.

The current projections show that the high school will have 30 more students next year. There are 44 more students in the incoming ninth grade class than the outgoing senior class.

For the 2010-11 school year, we eliminated 9 positions, 5 of which were at the high school. Since the 2008-09 budget, we’ve taken advantage of attrition to decrease the number of teachers by 13.