Schools

Principals Explain Priorities in Tough Budget Year

Class size, technology recurring requests

As the Board of Education began considering the 2011-12 school budget, principals representing all the district’s schools joined the board at the table to share their priorities.

Diane Cloud, Noah Wallace principal, spoke on behalf of the elementary schools, Alicia Bowman for West Woods Upper Elementary School, Kelly Lyman for Irving A Robbins Middle School and Tim Breslin for Farmington High School.

Bowman began, naming her first priority to keep class sizes small, thus allowing teachers to help students navigate challenging curriculum and to build relationships with their early adolescent students. She told the board that technology is also a top priority for West Woods, where all but 15 teacher workstations have been replaced. Of those 15, Bowman said six had already failed this year.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We’re just trying to maintain how we’re currently functioning,” she said.

Finally, she said, it’s important for the school to keep its library current and dynamic for students.

Find out what's happening in Farmingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lyman’s goal for Irving Robbins is to keep it a vibrant middle school. That type of school, Lyman said, which is in contrast to an old-fashioned junior high school, gives students increased responsibility as they bridge to high school, but also offers them the opportunity to explore.

Classes like music, applied physics and engineering, she said, are not just specials, but “really classes where 21st century skills are learned” and kids are encouraged “to think about the kind of work they want to pursue at the high school and beyond."

She also mentioned the afterschool programs the district has had trouble funding. The district has had a pay-to-participate policy for the past few years to offset costs.

“If we don’t have to be as concerned about raising the funds we can be more flexible,” Lyman said.

Finally, Lyman mentioned technology. The school’s aging technology she said is “curtailing opportunities” and holding the students back. The school has 30 classrooms she said, and only three computer labs.

Cloud said small class size and having support staff are most critical for elementary school students.

“Having large groups of children in young grades, where you’re teaching reading, prevents teachers from having multiple guided reading groups on the same day,” Cloud said.

Writing, too, requires a lot of one-on-one time as well as the early stages of math, she said.

Math was the second area of Cloud’s focus. The elementary school principals had asked the board for math specialists to help children who weren’t achieving.

“We have literacy instruction, we have reading recovery, we have no one in math,” she said. The board had discussed the principals’ request and said it wouldn’t be possible this year.

The next priority was funding for textbooks and library books and finally, technology, which recently has been funded by individual PTOs.

Breslin’s requests for the high school were few: maintain small class size, a 0.5 teacher to oversee the capstone project and new textbooks. The capstone project, which will be a state-mandated graduation requirement beginning in 2014, has been piloted with 30 seniors, who have been mentored by existing faculty.

Some textbooks at the high school are 15 years old, Breslin said.

Individual board members had few questions for the principals, only words of support and thanks. Superintendent Kathy Greider said 2011-12 is a unique budget year with “over $700,000 coming off of grants and coming on the operating budget.”

Budget discussions continue today at the Farmington High School library at 7 p.m.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here