Elementary schools in the Albert Lea School District take the largest single hit in the latest round of budget cuts ? losing 7.

Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Elementary schools in the Albert Lea School District take the largest single hit in the latest round of budget cuts – losing 7.5 teaching positions and absorbing $316,000 of the $1.1 million slashed from the 2002-2003 budget.

In response to the board’s decision, administrators are planning and teachers are worrying.

Although the cuts are listed as &uot;program eliminations and reductions,&uot; the main focus at the elementary schools, according to Superintendent David Prescott, is reducing teaching staff levels, not cutting any programs. For now, staffing levels of specialists responsible for art, music and other programs will remain at their current levels.

One reason for the high number of teacher cuts for elementary schools is that lower enrollment numbers are having a greater effect there.

&uot;The next step in the process is finding out which teachers will be reduced,&uot; Prescott said.

Issues related to teaching licenses and what contracts say about seniority complicate the planning. Administrators will need to find a way to balance the needs in each classroom in each school with the personnel available.

Prescott provided the example of letting go an individual kindergarten teacher, even though the actual reduction at the school might involve third-grade teachers. Most teachers at the elementary level have the same kind of license – appropriate for teaching kindergarten through sixth grade. &uot;It depends on who has been teaching longer,&uot; he said.

If actual enrollment next year matches school district projections, Prescott added, two or three teacher positions at elementary schools would have been eliminated, anyway.

Del Stein, the principal at Halverson Elementary, said it’s hard to speculate on the specifics of the cuts. &uot;The details are in the numbers you have. Like anyone else at this point I would be guessing at this point; there are too many variables,&uot; he said.

Steven Lund, principal at Sibley School, stressed that he and the other elementary principals have not yet met with each other to coordinate cutbacks among the four schools. He said he doesn’t yet know what Sibley will look like next year. &uot;The process up to this point has been about getting the numbers straight, and now the next step is to try to staff those numbers,&uot; Lund said.

One thing that will be important to all involved is to make sure that staffing levels and class sizes are balanced throughout the schools. Busing kids around the city is one step that will probably be necessary.

&uot;Some kids may be moved from their current schools,&uot; Lund said.

Still, he is hopeful about the future.

&uot;What we’re about to do for the next year is something we can deal with and maintain staff. At the same time, all our classes will be at maximum. Any additional students will put student numbers over our limit.&uot;

After the staff reductions have been carried out and classrooms reorganized next year, there will be an average of 22 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade and 30+ students in fourth through sixth grade.

And it is the larger class sizes that worry teachers.

&uot;It’s a whole different ballgame with these numbers. You can’t reach them as effectively as you would like to,&uot; said Judy Swee, a teacher at Hawthorne Elementary. There is uncertainty among elementary teachers, and a sense of not really knowing where things are going, she said.

&uot;I would hope that the community would look to maybe vote on this issue again and support it,&uot; Swee said. &uot;I know there’s a lot of people who support the school and yet I also know that there was a resounding no. I think there are a lot of good things (in our schools) that people don’t know about,&uot; she said.