District Staff Additions Contemplated as School Budget Season Begins

With the annual district Budget process underway, the school board meeting of Monday, January 9th addressed questions of staffing, one of the most important drivers of the budget. Superintendent Dr. Thomas Hagerman characterized the evening's focus as, "Putting people first, as we are a people business."

Most district families are likely to find proposed additions to next year's school staff that will enhance their students' educational experience in significant ways. Interestingly, these additions would only just bring district-wide staffing back to the levels customary before the upheavals of 2009-2010.

Departures:

Before examining the additions contemplated for the 2017-2018 year, Drew Patrick, Superintendent for Human Resources and Leadership Development, shared the news that six longtime teachers have announced their retirement at the end of this year. From the High School, they are Steven Boyer, Elise Levine, Anita Occhiuto, and Howard Rodstein; from the Middle School, Joanne Harris and Caran Pullen.

Early Elementary Reading: Key Foundation

Following upon last year's successful addition of a half-time reading support specialist for each elementary's 1st grade, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction Lynne Shain outlined a new target of one full-time reading specialist (meaning an additional 0.5 position) plus an additional 0.5 Learning Resource position for a new total of three interventionists at each elementary school (1 Reading Specialist and 2 Learning Resource teachers.)

Erik Rauschenbach, Director of Special Education and Student Services detailed the value of the program, reporting it has already increased the number of students reading at grade level. The new staffing would allow the reading specialists to begin a year earlier with Kindergarten students and continue support through the early grades as needed. This would have the additional effect of allowing the Learning Resources teachers to concentrate more fully on the older elementary students and their particular needs. Dr. Hagerman remarked, "This is based on the premise that reading is the foundation for all content areas including math and science, so we give it the utmost support in terms of the work that we're trying to do...and as early as possible."

Mr. Rauschenbach outlined further benefits of the reading support, expecting it to help more students to be prepared with higher-level reading skills as they transition to middle school. He also expressed a hope that there would be less need for students to transition out to schools such as Windward: "We will look at whether we see fewer kids leaving their home district for that help."

School Board President Leila Maude asked for a sense of what comparable districts around our area provide: "Were we behind and are we catching up?" Ms. Shain replied, "Absolutely."

Phys Ed for All

Ray Pappalardi, Director of Physical Education, Health and Athletics, also approached next year's staffing with the goal of meeting the needs of the full student population. He reported that a certain subset of students is not well-served with any current offering. An additional Physical Education teacher is proposed to allow the addition of an Adventure Curriculum focusing on social/emotional skills, confidence, and interdependence. This curriculum would build on the successful Challenge Course already in place at the Middle School. This additional full-time position would also allow the full use of every Physical Education space at the High School throughout the day.

Steaming Ahead with STEAM

Scarsdale's new STEAM curriculum at the high school is only a year old but it looks like it is already serving an eager population with more in the pipeline. Jerry Crisci, Director of Instructional Technology and Innovation, reports that with one full-time STEAM teacher on board, 270 students enrolled this year in 14 sections of the beginning courses: Intro. Engineering and Intro. Design & Fabrication. In order to complete the planned sequence, a second teacher is requested in order to teach the 2nd year options: Robotics, CAD, Design to Build, and Wearable Technology. Additionally, this position would take on the coordination of student work in the D-Lab and help grow the program's reach throughout the school. Community members eager to know more about the program should plan to attend the next Board Meeting on January 23rd which will be primarily focused on the STEAM curriculum.

Additional Staffing: Nurse, Custodial

Rounding out the proposed staffing is a request for an additional Nurse at the High School. With a guideline of 1 nurse per 700 students at the High School level, Scarsdale's current ratio of 1/1500 is not in line with accepted recommendations. Furthermore, Mr. Rauschenbach explained that with the stricter concussion management requirements now in place, the expansion of activities that continue beyond the school day, and the pool of students coming up with more intense allergy and chronic illness needs, a second nurse would be very much advisable. From a budgetary point of view, the elimination of nurse subs brought in during high demand will offset the new cost to some degree.

And in the realm of Facilities, the additional 25,000 square feet at the High School which have been added as part of the Bond Project will now require the addition of two additional cleaners. It is expected some of the cost of these positions will be offset by the decreased need for overtime.

A New "Zero" Period at SMS?

One piece of the first draft budget which has yet to be fully sketched out is the question of the "zero" period before the school day which is being considered for a possible introduction of Mandarin for incoming 6th graders. Ms. Shain's office recently surveyed incoming 6th grade families about their interest in an additional World Language in this 7:30-8:10 am time slot. With 140 families replying (a 36% response rate), 87 had no interest, and 22 wanted Mandarin. (While there was some interest in Latin, Italian, German, and ASL, none of these choices approached the number needed for one class section, set at 18.)

Board members discussed this option from several angles:
Scott Silberfein questioned how the early morning start and additional academics worked with the new focus on Wellness, while Dr. Hagerman countered with the thought that part of Wellness is learning to manage stress.
Board Vice President William Natbony questioned how costs might rise as the program tiered up to more levels in future. Ms. Shain noted that a monitor or chaperone to be in attendance during that early time period might need to be added to the budget.
Christopher Morin wondered whether the plan was a rather expensive and complicated way of using taxpayer money to serve 22 students.
Dr. Hagerman expressed confidence that the interest in Mandarin, like the interest in an expanded STEAM curriculum, was deeply rooted enough not to disappear.
Before concluding the discussion for the evening, Dr. Hagerman suggested it would be worth a face-to-face discussion with the interested families to gauge their commitment.

The Bottom Line for 2017-2018?

While still very much in draft form, nonetheless the proposed 2017-2018 budget looks like good news for the community at large. It provides significant new benefits and opportunities for students and brings staffing in line with pre-crisis levels while remaining under the tax cap of 1.49%.

(insert Budget Page)

Note: the Staffing Recommendations Report with full details can be found on the District webpage, and the community is invited to join in the process with questions and comments at the multiple meetings which will take place through the winter and spring; all dates listed in the Report.

And Greenacres:

Ms. Maude noted that most communications to the Board since the last meeting were on the topic of Greenacres, so it seems that the neighborhood must be eager for news of next steps. Assistant Superintendent for Business Stuart Mattey indicates the process is moving along with an ad running in the New York Times last week and responses due January 18th.

The most energetic public comments of the evening came about Greenacres from Mitch Kahn of 198 Brewster: "The first thing I came to ask for is the RFP for the architects for Greenacres; I don't know why it hasn't been given to us publicly....I know it's been asked for in emails....We should know what we're asking the architects to do."

Dr. Hagerman acknowledged, "The RFP has been requested by a couple of different folks. We have deliberately not sent it out....We're waiting to get to the conclusion of the process where we have the bids in and we have an opportunity to vet the architects before we scare people away who might not be otherwise interested in Scarsdale." He also clarified, "This was not an RFP that was specific to Greenacres....It was for a District Architect and so it was very open-ended."

Does that mean that the vigorously expressed and varied views of the Greenacres community actually have the potential to deter firms from work in our District? Is it time for residents to bite their tongues and await a new analysis of the school building from the Board and Administration's new choice? Or perhaps the community should work to build some agreement before new architects come on the scene.

As Mr. Kahn noted, "The teachers at Greenacres - about a month and a half ago - gave a presentation to Dr. Hagerman and I believe Mr. Mattey about their concerns about Greenacres School....Perhaps the Board should convene with them so they have an idea before we start down this road."

Dr. Hagerman confirmed, "The Board are very much aware of the concerns of the teachers and the principal."

In that case, perhaps the community should also be aware of the concerns of the teachers and the principal who work in the building providing our children's education every day, experiencing first-hand the building's capabilities and limitations. Maybe the PTA can lead the way and bridge this information gap?

In any case, the suspense will not last much longer; Mr. Mattey expects to have interviews in February and a recommendation thereafter.