School Board Discusses Full Day Kindergarten, Revenue Sources, Class Size and Staffing at March 21 Meeting

The Scarsdale Board of Education covered a lot of ground at their March 21 meeting, reporting on the full day kindergarten program, presenting the findings of the Board’s Revenue Committee and conducting discussions on district staffing of nurses and class size caps

Lynne Shain the Assistant Superintendant for Instruction presented the findings of an assessment of the new full day kindergarten program that began in the fall of 2010. The district formed a program review committee with representatives from each of the five elementary schools and this group designed surveys for parents of kindergarten students and teachers. She reported that though there are 305 children in kindergarten, only 85 parents completed the survey that was issued in February. In regard to the low completion rate, the group surmised that if parents were unhappy with the program they would have used the survey to voice their concerns.

Response among the parents was overwhelmingly favorable:

• 91% of parent respondents said the program was positive for their child
• 97% said their child was having a good experience in kindergarten this year
• 92% agreed that the teacher knows their child’s learning need.

Responses from teachers were also favorable with 93% reporting they were able to meet individual children’s learning needs.

Shain also reported that some teachers favor moving the cut-off for entry to kindergarten to those who are five years old by September. Though the committee did not make a recommendation to the change the cut off now, they did collect data on this issue.

So it looks like full day kindergarten is a keeper. Watch a video of the assessment here:

Board member Elizabeth Guggenheimer presented the findings of a Revenue Committee that was created last May to explore other sources of revenue for the district. The committee was chaired by Joan Weber and members explored methods to raise additional revenues to supplement the school budget.

Here is a summary of their findings and recommendations:

• In a survey of other districts they determined that Scarsdale is among the more conservative in their gift policies.
• In districts that have educational foundations, cannibalization of other fund raising efforts and erosion of support for the school budget were not a problem
• The group discussed other means to raise revenue such as including permitting advertising in the school, charging tuition for out-of-district students, development of school-owned land, and the rental of school facilities – and determined that were many obstacles to each one and that significant funds would not be raised by these means.
• The foundation would have it’s own Board of Directors, though the School Superintendant should sit on the Foundation Board.
• The foundation would need to be established and run by the community.
• The committee concluded that the BOE should consider supporting an educational foundation as it would be a viable option in this financial climate could generate funds to support programs.

BOE President Jill Spieler proposed a discussion of a foundation at the next Board meeting. You can watch the video presentation here :

Next on the agenda was a discussion of the staffing of nurses in the district. The proposed budget reduced the number of nurses at the Middle School from two to one and a conversation ensued about that decision. In 2010 -11, the district had the following staffing of nurses:

• High School – 1 nurse
• Middle School – 2 nurses
• Elementary School 1 nurse at each school
• 1 floating nurse – deployed where needed or to fill in for an absent nurse

The Board considered eliminating the floating nurse and adding back a nurse to the Middle School staff. They discussed the benefits of a floating nurse versus hiring substitute nurses when regular nurses were absent.

Parent Nicole Moser spoke and said that she has a child with diabetes and there is an increase in the number of diabetic children and it is a “management heavy” illness. According to Moser, eight students in the Middle School are diabetic. This year, the floating nurse has been stationed at Quaker Ridge because three children have diabetes there. Those students require the most time. Next year, there will be six incoming students at the Middle School with diabetes. If we reduce the headcount to one nurse at the Middle School we may risk the health of these children. From the tone of the conversation it appeared that the Board favored restoring the second nurse at the Middle School in place of the floating nurse.

Also discussed on 3-21 was class size, with each Board member giving their views on the potential policy change. The Board had proposed a more flexible approach to class size, which would allow them to add a student to an elementary school class if needed, rather than break into another section and hire an additional teacher.

The Board was impressed by the outcry from parents and assured them that they were heard. All, with the exception of Lew Leone agreed that the class caps should be maintained for at least one more year and the discussion turned to how to fund it. Some suggested using reserves and were hopeful that additional funds would be found by the end of the budgeting process. The school budget now calls for two undesignated teachers that could be used to teach additional elementary school sections. The Board explored the possibility of including a third undesignated teacher, though Mike McGill reported that in fourteen years at the district, this had not been necessary. Joan Weber reported that as of now, kindergarten enrollment does not appear to be high, so she did not anticipate a problem.

By the end of the discussion it seemed that the Board would try to find a way to maintain the class size caps for the 2011-12 school year.