More Students, Fewer Teachers

The Board of Education is worried about class size.

Official k-12 enrollment in the public schools as of the Oct. 1 benchmark was 4,032, beating projections by 16 students. Meanwhile staff positions were cut in the midst of a town-wide budget crunch. As a result, 88 class sections are above district guidelines by one to three students including 26 eighth grade core subject classes, 24 high school gym classes, and 11 middle school art classes; each of the five second grade homerooms at East School are also over by one. 

"We don't want to make class size something that continues to go up," said board member Hazel Hobbs following Assistant Superintendent Steven Swerdlick's presentation on enrollment and staffing. "After a while it does make a difference. The kids have different learning needs and we want the differentiated instruction."

With economic conditions still gloomy, the board is concerned that another budget fight and an influx of students from private schools could push the number of over-sized classes up again next year. 

"We are still in a slowly declining situation," said Swerdlick, noting in his report that the impact of the economy on the public schools has been modest. Despite being above projections by 0.4 percent, the student body still saw a 0.1 percent decline for 2009-2010 compared to the previous academic year. 

The two demographers tasked with making projections for next year predict the district will continue to shrink by a few dozen students, even taking transfers from private schools into account.

The wild card is kindergarten where there is a difference of 22 students between the predictions of NESDEC's Donald Kennedy and Peter Prowda. Swerdlick says the key factor in the discrepancy is the demographers' takes on the economy. 

"Dr. Kennedy (who predicted more kindergartners) has based his projections on the assumption that the economy is improving and we are likely to see a steady resumption of... families with school age or soon-to-be school age children moving in," Swerdlick wrote in his report. "Dr. Prowda's projections assume that a continued recovery may be further away." 

Swerdlick recommended that the board err on the side of caution and rely on Kennedy's numbers and again work to get parents to enroll their kindergartners early.   

Board member Amy Rochlin still found the forecasts for an overall decline hard to believe. 

"I still feel that our public schools are going to get more kids," she said.