Greenwich School Budget Cuts Finalized

$450K Trim Approved

The approved Superintendent Roger Lulow's recommendations for $450,000 in reductions of its 2012-13 budget to $139,357,220 with a vote of 7-0.

Lulow previously proposed areas of cuts at the May board meeting at . Among the low hanging fruit:

• reduction in the electrical rate;
• savings in transportation costs;
• elimination of a little used commuter van for district employees;
• savings in sick leave;
• reductions of Central Office positions by .6 FTE for the Physical Education and Mathematics coordinators;
• delaying fitness center equipment replacement at and .

White Paper On Preschool

Board member Jennifer Dayton proposed adding an item for Board discussion and exploration to the 2012-2013 agenda - preschool.

It is not the actual number of youngsters who arrive at the doorstep of GPS come without preschool, which Lulow estimates it between 2-3%, it is their "level of preparation." 

"We are going to find kids who went to preschool who are not prepared," said Lulow.

Board members were quick to commend Dayton for proposing the initiative including Nancy Kail who said that issues such as "kindergarten readiness" and the "quality of preparation" are what "the board should be looking at."

Lulow felt that it would not be onerous to do a initial review of:

• the available data
• the questions the data can answer
• the questions the data cannot answer

Including others in the conversation, such as parents, was voiced as important to board member Steve Anderson. "It is not a decision that we can start the discussion about by ourselves."

While it was recognized and agreed that a small number of children who do not have the skills needed when they start kindergarten, board chair Leslie Moriarity called it an "unique opportunity" to explore "alternative approaches" such as summer school, as suggested by board member Barbara O'Neill or "other kinds of supports."

Still with initiative fatigue on everyone's mind, Moriarty did admit "it is a new initiative in some fashion."

The Board Has Goals

"Overarching or specific?" asked Kail, who stated board goals should be simple.

"Do we want to be jack of all trades and master at none?" asked Anderson.

"What kinds of students do we want to graduate?" asked Moriarty.

For the fourth time this year, the board once again spoke at length about what should be their academic goals.

It is what Lulow calls walking and chewing gum at the same time. "We need to teach kids to read, write and compute."

For Lulow, the comments of the PTA Council resonated with him—"the PTA's comments about the 3 C's makes sense to me."

"PTA Council has long contended that academic evaluation should not be reduced to performance on one test. I cannot stress enough how important this is to our PTAs. Board goals discussions have centered on the "3 R's". Parents care about the 3 C's: career readiness, college preparation, and communication. Convince us that you are setting our children up for future success and keeping them safe and healthy while you do that," said PTA Council President Lisa Beth Savitz during the rare work session public comments.

Lulow also reminded the board not to forget about the "grey cloud" hanging over the district's head that only "53% in the paper and 68% from our measure" of students who graduated from GHS in 2004 have received a 2- or 4-year college degree.

While it took some discussion to get there, the board agreed 8-0 on the following three goals:

• Reading - The percentage of 3rd grade students at Goal/Mastery in CMT Reading will be 83% by 2015.
• Math - The percentage of 8th grade students successfully passing Algebra I will be 75% by 2015 to be measured by standardized test and GPS district math test.
• Writing - The percentage of 8th Grade students at Goal/Mastery in CMT writing will be 87% by 2015.

Ripple Effect

Back during the Jan. 5 Work Session, PE Coordinator Colleen Morey proposed that the high school aquatics program be amended to "provide the opportunity for those students who demonstrate mastery of instructional objectives to opt out of basic skill instruction" by "testing out."

In lieu of the basic class, students would "be encouraged to participate in an alternative aquatics offering (e.g., kayaking, snorkeling, water polo). Students may request the opportunity to participate in other PE offerings if available (e.g., lifetime sports, fitness)," according to the proposal.

The board approved the proposal which was included in the PE Curriculum Review at its Jan. 19 meeting on the consent agenda with a vote of 8-0.

Now, months later, the board discussed the unintended consequences of that approval, which will be provided as an option to all incoming freshmen.

During last week's board meeting, Morey presented a proposed three-year PE budget (2013-2016), includes an additional $79,260 for GHS aquatics during the 2013-2014 budget (and and additional $74,660 in the following two years):

• $4,600 for curriculum writing for 3 sections of Advanced Aquatics;
• $1,260 for bus transportation for incoming freshmen to participate in the test out (to be done in January so that scheduling may take place in March);
• $3,400 for instructional materials for the Advanced Aquatics such as water polo, aquatic zumba, aquatic aerobics etc;
• $70,000 for an additional staff person to provide instruction for the additional sections.

Board member Peter Sherr said, "When we talked about this before, I did not anticipate this trap door."

"Have we steered our way into not the best decision?" he asked.

Morey said told the board that it is "hard to gauge" just how many students would opt-out.

At GHS, she explained, there are "all different levels of aquatics proficiency" and not just in reference to strokes. There are also important survival skills to consider.

The district simply does "not have data to base" a projection on. Perhaps "after a year or two of doing it we might have a better idea" of what the interest will be.

GHS PE Program Associate Lillian Perone, who handles the scheduling, told the board that when you have 25, 28 or 30 kids testing out, there needs to be alternatives for these students. 

"Do we put these students in classes that are already at cap?" she asked.

Testing for this year's incoming freshmen will occur this fall.