NEW SCOTLAND — Parents of a large middle school class asked the school board here to add a fifth section next year, but contentious board discussion with parents on Monday questioned the use of resources for smaller classes against the addition of high school programs that would bring Voorheesville graduates up to speed with their peers.

The school board approved next year’s budget at $23,796,334, with a tax levy increase of $153,000, or 0.9 percent — under the state-set tax cap.  The 2016-17 budget includes an additional $216,000 in state aid from the removal of the state’s gap elimination adjustment for 2016-17.

“This is a good year for us,” said Superintendent Brian Hunt, describing the extra state aid as a one-time source of funds. He said that the district is using the funds to add a teaching position for the large incoming kindergarten class and to make one-time expenditures.

Class sizes

Parents filled the school board meeting room to protest the administration’s decision to keep the sixth grade at four sections instead of five.

Parent Heidi Arnaud, whose son is 10 years old, said that the children work hard, but are not given recognition in school “so they can find out who they are….Of course, we want everything for the high school, and everything for the kindergartners, but...is there room to add a little buffer?”

Some parents cited studies that show small class size contributes to success, but school board President Timothy Blow said, “To me, class size doesn’t come before enrichment. This is not Albany City Schools. This is Voorheesville. We have good teachers. We have good students. Class size is the cherry on the sundae. Enrichment is the meat and potatoes.”

Another parent said that professors malign the writing skills of college freshmen who cannot write, and that class size should be reduced.

“To quote a study questioning the ability of our students to not write their way out of a paper bag…” Blow said. “Are you saying Voorheesville students can’t write? That’s beyond my comprehension.”

Hunt agreed with parents that teachers are generally happier with smaller class sizes, but he said that the district’s middle school teachers helped write the new curricular changes proposed for next year, and the existing enrichment period for help has not been eliminated from the proposed schedule.

In a recently negotiated contract, teachers and the school board agreed to set maximum class sizes at 27 students for kindergarten to fifth grade, and 30 students for the middle and high schools, Hunt said. The current fifth grade has 102 students, Hunt said, and classes next year would have 25 or 26 students if the district keeps a four-section schedule.

The curriculum changes proposed include science, technology, the arts, math, and language skills. Many of the changes include digital education and training for students and teachers across multiple subjects.

According to a presentation by Hunt and middle school Principal Jennifer Drautz, the new programs will “prepare our middle school students for high school and for the global society and economy they will inhabit as adults, enhance students’ interests and creativity with regard to what they are learning, [and] support and contribute to students’ social and emotional well-being and growth,” they wrote.

Teacher Kathy Fiero, the president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Association, said that teachers would opt for 20 students rather than 26 in a classroom, but said, “The teachers here are going to work with any class size we’re given.”

“I don’t want to lose instructional time,” Hunt said.

“I agree,” Fiero said.

The middle school proposals will help the students prepare for and schedule advanced classes in the high school, including courses in an enrichment STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program new to Voorheesville, Project Lead the Way, Hunt said. At the middle school level, academic intervention can continue to be given to students during a daily enrichment period, he said.

“Based on the discussion,” Hunt wrote The Enterprise, “the principal will discuss scheduling ideas and options with the teachers and staff, and she will present some scheduling options for the board to consider.  The intent is that we hope to come up with a way to have the five regular class sections and the enrichment period also for students. The enrichment, perhaps, could be taught by other teachers.  It is not certain this can be accomplished, but we are going to give it our best effort.”

Hunt explained at the board meeting that core teachers — for English, math, science, and social studies — cannot be assigned more than five classes without their permission, but that teachers outside the core classes can be assigned six classes without permission.

Scheduling for high school students, rather than teachers, also fueled the changes, as students have no time during their four years to take all the advanced courses they could; the middle school program proposed includes accelerating eighth-graders into math and science courses, as other district do, to free up time at the high school level, administrators said.

The district plans to add four-tenths of a business teacher position next year to assist current teacher Heather Garvey, who currently teaches 145 students in six sections, Hunt said, describing her as, “by far, the most overloaded teacher at Voorheesville.” Garvey has received 200 requests for her courses next year, Hunt said.

“The board of education has set [a goal] ...to increase enrichment and acceleration and to offer more course options for our students,” Hunt wrote to The Enterprise. “That is why the funds we received from the state are targeted toward enhancing course offerings at the high school, as well as for smaller class size at the kindergarten level.

“The enrichment discussion,” he continued, “is really about how we use the time and schedule instruction for students in sixth grade.  There is also a budget implication in the sense that, if we need to hire additional staff to do both five sections and the enrichment period, that would take away from the additional staff we need at the high school to strengthen our program.”

Board member C. James Coffin spoke to those who suggested the district should worry more about non-advanced students who need to be sure of graduating.

“The board asks the staff, ‘Where are the ones having a problem?’ ” Coffin said. “The bells ring and people respond, and we get the children through the program.

“We are so far behind some other districts,” Coffin said about altering the middle school program to address needs for high school classes. The district, he said, must “dig up the money and push it through. We’re running out of time.”

Blow said that Voorheesville “has never changed, except to get better. What has changed are cuts. We have cut a lot to maintain our budget.” The additional programs at the high school will restore to Voorheesville “what has been stripped from this place over the last six or eight years,” he said, noting that, in his 25 years in the schools, Project Lead the Way is “the single most important thing this district is adding since I have been here.”

“Please don’t ask me to pick one grade over others,” said board member Doreen Saia. “Your grade will move up.”

Drautz said that the program changes in the middle school will also look at making coursework more accessible and interesting to students.

“Not everyone is the ace in math or science,” she said. Other students are at the top of their classes, “but, it wasn’t their interest,” she said.

Her goal for the future is to create a curriculum that attends to student interests and allows “a flow to the high school that is not there now,” she said.

Administrators will present new class-scheduling options at the board’s meeting in May.