1975-02-24-SC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 64 February 24, 1975 At the February 18, 1975 meeting, Mrs. Davison made a MOTION, which was seconded by Mr. Rotberg, to TABLE discussion of the specialists until this evening. Mrs. Swanson MOVED to remove Mrs. Davison's MOTION from the table. Mr. Wadsworth, Mrs. Berchtold and Mrs. Davison were in agreement while Mr. Rotberg was in opposition to this action. SCIENCE SPECIALISTS (co Mrs. Berchtold told the audience that the committee was not questioning the specialists' performance or how they spend their time serving the students. The committee was examining a policy issue - that is - the level of staff to be provided and whether there is a total balance between the classroom teachers and specialists. She added that we are all faced with the need to scale down staff and noted that it will be necessary for the committee to make some hard decisions. She then presented some figures which she had compiled earlier regarding projected staffing needs and the number of teaching stations K-6 for the years 1969, 1974 and 1975. The information had been reviewed previously at a January meeting. For the year 1969 we had a total of 198 classroom teachers, including 16.5 at the kindergarten level. By 1974 the figure had dropped to 165.5 teachers with 12.5 at the kindergarten level. For 1975, the total number of teachers K-6 will drop to 156.5 but the number of kindergarten teachers will remain at 12.5. She noted that support staff rose from 72 in 1969 to 82.1 for 1975. This figure did not include town-wide staff. Because of the decline in enrollment, she questioned the need to keep all the specialists. She pointed out that some specialists consult directly with teachers rather than with students. The specialist/teacher ratio changed from 1:2.8 in 1969 to 1:1.9 in 1975. Mr. Rotberg said that if we took an enrollment decline of 5% the re- reduction of specialists would be .2 rather than 2.5 within a year. He asked the committee why emphasis was being placed on reduction in the science area and not in art, French, math or physical education. He suggested that we call upon the elementary principals in the audience to hear what they had to say about the reduction would have in the schools. Mrs. Davison also questioned the reasons for cutting only in the science area and not in any other. She said she could not see how we could withdraw a program without understanding the consequences. She felt we would be destroying the program if this is done. Mr. Wadsworth said that he has felt all along that too much support staff existed with the administration doing nothing to correct the situation. He felt that a reduction of science specialists would have the least effect on the system. Dr. Fobert commented that there was a question of reducing a program by degrees or destroying it. Two principals of elementary schools were called upon to give their views on the subject. Mr. William Terris of Estabrook School, supported the science program and suggested that eight specialists be added to the Social Studies department someday since there are none at present.