Niskayuna parents express concerns about possibility of mixed-grade classes

Some Niskayuna parents are worried that their children’s education would suffer in combined-grade classes — an option the district is considering for next year.

About 120 people attended the school district’s first budget forum Tuesday at Van Antwerp Middle School. This was the first of a series of six forums on developing the 2012-13 budget, which school officials say could require cutting $3.5 million in spending.

The district is looking at combining certain sections where there is a small number of students. At Birchwood, there could be one combined class each of kindergarten and first grade; second and third grade; and fourth and fifth grade. At Craig, there could be one section of first and second grade; at Glencliff, one combined kindergarten and first grade and one combined fourth and fifth grade; at Hillside, one combined kindergarten and first-grade class; and at Rosendale, one combined second and third grade and one combined fourth and fifth grade.

The subject of combination classes came up late in the discussion of the 2011-12 budget, but the Board of Education ultimately decided not to combine any classes. This year, Superintendent Susan Kay Salvaggio said the board wanted it as the first topic of discussion.

Total elementary school enrollment is projected to decline by 100 students, according to Salvaggio. The district is already eliminating four sections. By combining grades, the district could eliminate nine teachers and other support staff to save about $682,500.

Class size would be at or below 26 in all but two cases, Salvaggio said.

At the high school level, the district is setting a minimum enrollment of 15 students to offer a course.

“The days where we can offer classes for three or four students are probably beyond us,” she said.

Among the concerns of parents were how the curriculum would be tailored to the different grades and in the case of a combined kindergarten and first-grade class, mixing 4-year-olds with students who could be 6 or even 7.

Deb Shea, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said if this were to happen, the district would provide training money for teachers to work together in the summer on planning.

Shea said there has been research showing that kindergarten and first grade is a very natural combination because there is a range of abilities. Some kindergartners are able to read and some first-graders are still mastering the skill. “They’re more similar than dissimilar,” she said.

Glencliff Elementary parent Shawn Bushway said he would almost rather just increase class sizes. “Everybody loses a little. If you go to a combo class, some kids lose a lot. Some kids actually gain.”

Bushway added that this is not being proposed as an educational improvement. “It’s a solution to a budget problem,” he said.

Parent Aliza Mesbahi said one of her children had one of his best years while in a combined fourth and fifth grade at Hillside.

“The older kids do benefit. They are with a teacher that they had last year that they really love,” she said.

Also, she added that the district has to think creatively. “My taxes have gone up 50 percent since I moved here,” she said.

Some parents even expressed willingness for the district to exceed the tax levy cap, which Salvaggio estimated would be a 2.31 percent increase to the levy based on inflation and other factors, if it meant preserving programs.

“That’s not an option. That’s too low,” said Joe Skumurski, who has children at Hillside and Van Antwerp Middle School. “We have a higher standard for kids.”

Salvaggio said to maintain all the existing programs would require a 10 percent increase in the budget. “We don’t believe that’s realistic,” she said.

The other forums will be held on Dec. 20, Jan. 10 and 24 and Feb. 7 and Feb. 28. The other topics are administration, special education, program offerings and extracurricular activities, facilities use and user fees and outsourcing and shared services.

The forums will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Van Antwerp Middle School auditorium before the start of the Board of Education meeting.

Online survey

The district is also asking people to fill out an online budget survey, which can be found on its website at www.niskayunaschools.org. The survey period will last through Dec. 15.

The district’s survey about budget priorities went online last week. The survey includes asks participants to rank spending priorities and allows for some suggestions. One question pertains to the tax cap and asks whether it should be exceeded, which can be done with a super-majority vote of the school board.

Salvaggio said in an interview earlier this week that the small tax increase the district is planning will not cover the automatic increases included in the budget, which mainly consist of salaries and pensions. For the most part she seemed reluctant to support overriding the tax cap, arguing that this process is about living within the district’s means and noting that the people in the district have enough economic hardships without higher taxes.

“The first obligation is to explain the problem. That’s really the conversation that stems from the survey,” she said.

“This lets us know what roads we can go down,” she added, explaining that the survey will hopefully illuminate the areas of the budget the board can’t cut or should cut.

The potential shortfall in the budget could be slightly mitigated by the districts’s reserve funds, but they have been depleted in recent years, and Salvaggio didn’t want to used them up completely.

She said it can’t be an option this year and chastised Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s blanket criticism of school districts, which he claims are stockpiling cash in their rainy day funds.

This is not the first time the district has offered a survey, and this year’s version recycles previous district questions, as well as ones from surrounding districts and new ones created by the central office staff.

Salvaggio said one potential limitation of the survey is that it does not go into great depth about the ramifications of certain options, like what it means to shift certain services to private operators.

The broadest part of the survey is on the last page, where respondents are able to write their own ideas.

The survey will be available until Dec. 15, and the results should be made available for the Dec. 20 budget meeting.

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