By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The question of class size versus cost is one that the Burlington Area School District has been balancing for several years.
Now, with several grade-school classes reaching critical mass – and the decision on how the district will handle it postponed a week – area parents are willing to voice specific concerns.
Superintendent Peter Smet announced the postponement last week, and the meeting will now be Monday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the Burlington High School library.
“We needed a little more time to analyze the comments made and develop a proposal that addresses as many concerns as possible,” Smet said in an email. He and Assistant Superintendent Connie Zinnen were out of town at a conference through today.
Two of the parents that spoke at the June 8 meeting, however, spoke up loud and clear.
Dawn Petges said Winkler School is, in essence, losing two teachers in spite of previous accommodations being made for larger classes by adding a section.
“I don’t understand why our teachers are going away … why we’re being punished,” said Petges, who pointed out that Winkler is losing two class sections and two teachers – one slated to go to Cooper Elementary School, the other to Waller.
Another frustrating element, Petges said, was finding out about the changes from the teachers themselves.
“We heard this information through the grapevine,” she said. “We heard it from teachers who were affected by it. We didn’t hear it from the school district officially, ever.
“Everything is hush-hush, and it’s really frustrating to parents,” Petges added.
She wants an explanation of where the money has gone.
“It’s not my job as a parent to say where do they spend the money, but having the teachers there seems to be the most important thing,” Petges said.
Tracey Bousquet, meanwhile, has a son who has had an ADHD diagnosis since kindergarten. Since he does not have an individual education plan for those with special needs, she’s concerned about her son being in a third grade class of 27 students.
“Honestly, he’s a distraction because he’s very high energy,” she said. “If he’s not reminded constantly to slow down and stuff, he’ll just go, go, go.
“I would hope there would at least be a full-time aid,” Bousquet added. She also pointed out a special education plan would also help her son get the one-on-one time he needed.
Bousquet admitted that her son is at the achieving as a normal student, and he’s not floundering.
“He’s at the average,” she said. She expects that to drop, though, if he can’t get one-on-one help.
The district is looking over a number of options to address the class sections. The class size averages are within the norm for the district, but several classes are higher than the average.
Last week, Smet said the district could chose to live with the current class sizes, reassign or ask parents to switch children to other schools, hire additional staff, end the neighborhood school concept and cluster grades – or some combination of the above.
Adding staff beyond current levels would likely involve an operational referendum to raise taxes to fund more teachers.
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