GUILDERLAND — School-board members are supportive of the $84 million budget presented by the superintendent and reviewed by a citizens’ committee but offered recommendations last week on fine-tuning the spending plan for next year.

“I absolutely support the budget in its current form but I think it could be tweaked,” said board member Colleen O’Connell, making a statement typical of the other eight board members.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders explained at the start of the meeting that the proposed budget represents a 2.2-percent increase over this year’s budget and would bring an estimated 1.54-percent increase in taxes. About three-quarters of the budget is for instruction and benefits, he said, and the bulk of the revenues — 68 percent — will come from taxes while the state will chip in an estimated 27 percent.

Board member Gloria Towle-Hilt praised the plan for its “fiscal restraint” and for maintaining “excellence in education.”

“The baby boomer mini-bulge is passing through,” said board President Richard Weisz of what is sometimes called the echo boom, created by children of post-World War II baby boomers. Guilderland’s enrollment next year is projected at 5,256, a decline of 109 students. Weisz said he applauded the district’s recognition that the community expects, as student numbers drop, so should the staff.

The board will adopt the final plan at its next meeting, on April 8, and the public will vote on the budget May 20.

Two issues emerged as topics the board would like to pursue further — the role of supervisors and the constraints of block scheduling at the high school.

The budget calls for a full-time supervisor for the district’s 11 guidance counselors at a cost of $104,255 for salary and benefits.

Board member Cathy Barber recommended cutting that to a half-time post, which several other board members supported.

“The guidance counselors we’ve heard, again and again, are overwhelmed,” countered board member Denise Eisele. A supervisor, she said, would evaluate and coordinate the department.

“We’re doing things the old way,” said Eisele. “It’s not working for a lot of kids.” The supervisor, she said, would “provide outreach” to the community, facilitate distance learning, work with social workers, and place kids with jobs after school in school-to-work programs.

She said that guidance counselors need to reach all the students, not just those going to college.

“I can’t support adding $140,000 for 11 people,” said Barbara Fraterrigo, commenting on the number of counselors to be supervised. She said she had heard “year after year” guidance counselors saying they need another body to interact with students. She suggested they could get clerical help without paying for someone who has a degree in counseling.

Fraterrigo pointed out that, last year, the board combined the supervisor’s posts for English and social studies at the high school. Members of both departments had strenuously objected to this.

Several board members last week said they had been promised feedback on how the combined post was working, but none has been forthcoming.

The social-studies department chair had retired, so the English chair, Patricia Hansbury-Zuendt, was named to head both departments this year.

Asked if the faculty is satisfied with the change, Hansbury Zuendt told The Enterprise, “I have not had any loud, vociferous complaints.”

Citing math and science at both the middle school and the high school, she went on, “Supervisors have been doing this for many years...It’s a model that works well.”

Asked about difficulties, Hansbury-Zuendt said, “Forty-four is a lot of people” to supervise. She went on, “It’s a large job, but I’m enjoying it and learning as I go.”

Asked about advantages, she said, “We’re able to make some connections between reading, writing, and research. Those will grow.”

Board member Hy Dubowsky said he was in favor of restoring the social-studies supervisor and said the board should also consider creating a post for science supervisor. “We are moving at light speed,” said Dubowsky, stating  science and math are different fields, both “moving so fast.”

Superintendent John McGuire said a comprehensive analysis of the supervisory model will be done in the coming year.

The board was divided on starting Project Lead the Way, a program to introduce engineering to high-school students next year at a cost of $57,000.

Board member Colleen O’Connell said she was “on the fence” since hearing comments from Walter Jones, an engineer and a member of the citizens’ budget committee.

“He believes it would create technicians, not engineers,” said O’Connell.

“We need technicians and we need engineers to be competitive in the world we live in,” said Fraterrigo, who supports the program.

Dubowsky said he also supports Project Lead the Way. “Students collaborate in a real-time, real-life way,” he said, calling it “an important first step” for the district.

While Vice President John Dornbush supported Project Lead the Way, he said modification must be made to the high school’s block schedule. “They have no electives,” said Dornbush.

When the board first heard a presentation on the project (see www.altamontenterprise.com under “archives” for Feb. 7, 2008), both Weisz and Dornbush pointed out that students have few chances to take electives like the pre-engineering courses. They currently have to choose between music and art.

The program is set up for failure because of block scheduling, said O’Connell, calling it “a great big pink elephant.”

Alluding to a series of short-term principals at the high school, O’Connell said one of the reasons block scheduling has not been looked at is “lack of continuity in leadership.”

She recommended the board look at a modified block schedule next year.

Weisz said that the block schedule, which has long periods, has “a lot of substantive and educational benefits,” and that it’s easy to take the benefits for granted and focus on just the problems.

 Dubowsky said he supported putting “the block on the block.”

The block schedule is not perfect, said Superintendent McGuire. “We don’t plan to throw it out,” he said, but will work to improve it.

All of the board members supported the Foreign Language Early Start program, which introduced Spanish to students in kindergarten, first, and second grades this year. Next year, third-graders will study Spanish as well.

The budget called for just two-tenths of a teacher for this, at a cost of $12,400, but most board members favored a half-time teacher as the foreign-language department had requested. The added three-tenths would cost $18,600, Assistant Superintendent for Business Neil Sanders told The Enterprise.

Some board members wanted to add a full-time teacher but conceded to the curriculum director’s views that jumping ahead to teach fourth- or fifth-graders wasn’t warranted.

Two board members — John Dornbush and Hy Dubowsky — said they’d like the district to consider adding Chinese to the European foreign languages currently offered.

Board members were divided on the size for the fifth-grade classes next year.

It had historically been “20-plus,” said Barber, so the current proposal doesn’t seem unreasonable, she said.

O’Connell said new staffing was needed at Westmere and Guilderland elementary schools so that the number of students stays below 20 in fifth-grade classes.

Dornbush said it was “acceptable” to have 22 or 23 students in third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classes.

The no-cost proposal to lower class sizes at the middle school by having students change houses got mixed reviews as well.

Farnsworth Middle School is divided into four houses, each a school within the larger school. Towle-Hilt, who used to teach at Farnsworth, said that “house and team structure have been the heart and soul” of the middle-school experience. The purpose, she said, is to offer students a “small-school experience” where they are known well by caring adults.

Fraterrigo said there have been many times in the past where the model has been adjusted as needed. “Kids do survive,” she said.

Towle-Hilt also lamented the loss of the New Start program, which taught middle-school students who didn’t do well in traditional programs. Towle-Hilt termed the cut “short-term savings with long-term cost.”

She said the district has “a tremendous obligation to care for the most vulnerable.”

Several board members voiced support for sending a second student next year to Tech Valley High School. Tuition for the new regional school is $18,000, of which 41 percent is reimbursed through state aid.

Last year, Guilderland sent one student, as each participating school is allowed to do, although a few board members had balked at the cost.

O’Connell said the board doesn’t vote on other BOCES services, like culinary courses or the New Visions program, and doing so could set it up for failure.

Dornbush said supporting Tech Valley High “isn’t about sending one student but supporting an enterprise that is the model we hope to follow in the future.” He also said, “We’d be hypocritical not to support Tech Valley High.”

While Fraterrigo said she could support the new reading teacher post at the high school — which would cost $62,000 for salary and benefits — she said it was “sad” to have the added staff at the high-school level rather than earlier.

Eisele said it made sense at the high school. Some kids will have problems reading for the rest of their lives, she said, and they can learn about technology that will assist them.

“The middle school is like the middle child,” said board member Peter Golden, terming it “a terribly difficult age.” He said the new reading teacher should go to the middle school.

Dubowsky agreed, saying he opposed the new reading teacher in the high school and would rather see it in the middle school. “All the research is, that’s where the bottom seems to hit,” he said.