by Frank Schroth

The most interesting issue taken up at the last School Committee meeting was not on the agenda. During the finance subcommittee report it came up that due to a bit of a bubble in Kindergarten enrollments the administration recommended adding another kindergarten class. Here is a quick review of the situation.

There are currently more students enrolled for kindergarten than anticipated. The maximum number that the administration wants in a class is 22. There are currently 4 Kindergarten classes at Collicot, 3 at Cunningham, 3 at Glover and 3 at Tucker. The administration anticipates further demand for seats as the summer progresses due to either people moving into town or families that for whatever reason failed to register. Hence, because the current classes are at or very close to capacity, the administration wants to start another class. Superintendent Gormley said the class would need to be either at the Cunningham or Collicot as they are only schools with space. Mr. Gilles reported that the costs of starting the class (teacher etc) could be absorbed within existing budget.Families are required to pay for full day kindergarten. There is a sliding scale which we won’t attempt to explain here but the costs can be covered due to conservative fiscal management. The issue is not so much with the need to start a new class as it is what impact such a class will have on the 2013-2014 1st grade enrolments.

The majority of students enrolled in first grade for the 2012 – 2013 school year have opted for French Immersion. According to the most recent figures 67% of incoming 1st graders have enrolled in French Immersion and 33% in Eng/Regular Ed. Glover appers to have the greatest disparity. Currently there are 11 students enrolled in English at Glover and 77 in French Immersion. At an earlier meeting the school committee had requested some metrics from the administration regarding the two programs, their performance etc. The administration has committed to having that data along with a proposal at the next meeting of the school committee on the 25th of July.

Parents have been appearing during citizen speak to voice their concerns about possible resource disparities between the two programs. At the session just ended a parent spoke to say that it was fine that her African-American daughter was a minority racially and that being on an IEP also put her in a minority but that she was also a minority being in English was not OK.

Member Leroy Walker said ” we have set a schedule for ourselves that I feel is a little leisurely. . . when are we going to make this decision?’ Mr. Walker was concerned that “I don’t think it is fair to parents to say we are doing this now but we don’t really know what the impact is going to be (of the additional kindergarten class) – we have enough uncertainty right now – we have to answer all those questions – whatever we decide someone is not going to be happy.” Mr. Walker advocated delaying the vote on the additional kindergarten class until the entire enrollment issue could be understood. He was in the minority. Ms. Bagley-Jones heard is concern but felt that the administration needed to move forward on the new hire for the class. The motion to authorize the additional class passed with understanding that current budget could absorb the cost.

The committee will take up the first grade enrollment issue at their meeting on 7/25.