By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Due to “mushrooming enrollment,” Superintendent of Schools Jon Sills asked the School Committee on June 11 for permission to hire an additional kindergarten teacher and an additional Teaching Assistant (TA) for Davis School, bringing the number of kindergarten classes up to nine for the fall of 2013.“We are at 161 kindergarten students this year and we predicted similar numbers for next year but, as of this morning, we’re at 183,” explained Sills. “So, there’s no possible way that we can accommodate those kids without an additional class, unless we want class sizes of 25 or 26. Kindergarten really should be 18, with a maximum of 20. Already, even with another class, we’ll be up to 20 and 21 [per classroom.] ”
The bump in next year’s kindergarten was not anticipated. One theory about why it is happening is that a kindergarten bump that was expected this year—but that did not materialize –was delayed, perhaps because of “a lot of August birthdays.” In other words, parents of children with birth dates close to the cut-off time for kindergarten eligibility might have decided to wait to enroll until the following year.
“Our demographic projections indicated that this [2012-13 school year] was the year of the big bubble that didn’t pan out,” Sill said.
To make room for a ninth kindergarten classroom, reconfiguration of the physical space in Davis School is necessary. Sills said that the current music room will be moved to what are now two, smaller ELL (English Language Learning) rooms. The existing partition between the two rooms will be dismantled to make one larger room; the ELL rooms will migrate to another part of the building—the so-called “blue pod”— and space for the program will be recreated through more reconfiguration and partitioning.
Last fall, the School Committee evaluated school space needs and determined that— for the time being— additions were not necessary at any of the four buildings. The unexpected ninth kindergarten class does not, according to Sills, require revisiting this question. “Right now, we’re OK,” Sills assured the Committee. “It just means partitioning an additional pod [at Davis] from the one we already planned to reconfigure.”
Responding to the Committee’s question about where the money will be found to hire the additional kindergarten staff, the district’s Director of Finance David Coelho said that some savings will be realized from a retiring teacher’s salary.
“At this point, we’re close [to being able to fund the new teacher and assistant], and then there is always the School Committee Reserve Fund, if we need to use it. We’ll know better when all of this has worked itself out,” Coelho said.
“We’ve known about [the need for another kindergarten teacher] for a few weeks,” said Sills, “so we’ve been thoughtful to make room [for the expense] during our hiring process of new teachers.”
“What happens if the kindergarten numbers drop next year?” asked School Committee member Ann Guay. “What happens to that position?”
“Most likely, that person would then teach first grade,” Sills replied. “They would follow the numbers within K-2. Then we’d have to see.
“We don’t expect to see these numbers [in kindergarten] two years in a row but, of course, it’s not an exact science,” Sills concluded.
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