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Page 194 November 22, 1976 A brief discussion took place regarding the source of funds for the contract. Mr. Maclnnes replied that $12,000 would come from the portion of budgeted money for 2 maintenance men who will not be hired, $11,000 would come from 70% of a budgeted non-replaceable position in Personal Services, and $5,000 from the Expense Budget. Additional information regarding the class sizes at the secondary SECONDARY CLASS level was presented to the School Committee. Principals from the sec- SIZE ondary schools were in attendance to respond to questions. Classes under fifteen or over thirty were documented and the rationale for the classes were also presented. Dr. Lawson stated that during the time he had been here that none of the courses that were under fifteen were ap- proved by him even though the policy states that courses under fifteen shall be approved by the superintendent of schools. After a brief dis- cussion it was agreed that the superintendent review the administrative guidelines in effect that all classes under fifteen be approved by the superintendent of schools. Dr. Lawson also stated that he would further analyze the situation. Mr. Wadsworth said that as he went around, he felt that there was SCHOOL CLOSINGS a great deal of space available, and he would suggest that the School Committee seriously consider the possibility of phasing out three schools at one time, namely, Hancock, Munroe, Parker; rather than phasing them out over a period of time. He presented a plan that would include the retention of eight elementary schools, four on the east side of town and four on the west side with two of the schools being 4-6 organization on each side of town and two K-3 schools on each side of town. He said the specifications would be that kindergarten classes would range between sixteen and eighteen, and grades 1-6 would be twenty-one to twenty-five students. He said that he had asked the administration to look into this. He also added that there should be no combined classes unless there be definite academic reasons . He felt that all of this could be accomplished at a reasonable cost. Mr. Michelman said that the school visitations had been very bene- ficial to him as a school committee member and hoped that a recoimaenda- tion on housing the students in the schools of Lexington would be forth- coming from the superintendent. Dr. Lawson said that he had hoped that no later than the first meeting in January he hoped that the school com- mittee would either re-affirm or change the vote regarding the closing of a school in September, 1977. Mr. Michelman then added that he had noticed space inadequacies in some buildings, and some overcrowding even though there had been a decline in enrollment. He said an upper limit of twenty-five students seemed to him higher .than we should be aiming for and did lead to problems. He felt that the decline in stu- dent enrollment gave Lexington opportunity to set the class average well below twenty-five without a fiscal problem. Mr. Brown said that he saw no great advantage to class sizes between twenty and twenty-five and he felt that the upper end of the range of twenty-five was accept- able as a class size. He said he would like to receive comments and