Principals Appeal For More Teachers, Guidance Counselors

By Larissa Lytwyn

Newtown Public Schools’ seven principals delivered an overview of their 2004–05 requested budgets during a special school board meeting December 18.

“We want to make clear that these presentations are simply requests made to the superintendent,” said Chairman Elaine McClure. “When the total budget is put together some of these [numbers] will likely be cut.”

After Superintendent of Schools Evan Pitkoff reviews the budget and the school board passes it, Newtown’s budget process requires the school budget to be approved by the Board of Finance, Legislative Council, and Board of Selectmen before being put to a town vote.

The current year’s $49,407,147 budget was finally approved after being rejected twice in a town vote.

Each education budget is broken down into projected enrollment, class size by department, distribution of per pupil allocation, staffing requests, and maintenance and equipment requests.

The majority of per pupil allocation goes toward “supplies” including textbooks, writing utensils, and other educational materials.

With consideration to the difficult passage of the 2003–04 budget, Newtown High School Principal William Manfredonia emphasized the “modest” nature of his proposal.

Newtown High School’s population is steadily growing, Mr Manfredonia noted, from this year’s 1,560 students to next year’s estimated 1,606 students. Class sizes are expected to be particularly large in departments including social studies, science, and language arts. Next year’s projected class size for social studies students could be as high as 30.

To maintain a teacher/student ratio below 30:1, Mr Manfredonia requested an additional English, science, social studies, and world language teacher. He also requested a part-time world language department clerk and part-to-full time administrative assistants in the main office and guidance department.

“If you had to pick only one teacher for a department, which department would you choose?” asked board member David Nanavaty.

“Social studies,” Mr Manfredonia replied, referring to next year’s peak potential class size.

Another major concern Mr Manfredonia expressed was Newtown High School’s alarmingly high guidance counselor-to-student ratio. “Most schools [of similar size] have about a 1:250 ratio,” Mr Manfredonia said, “while we have about 1:300 right now.”

He hopes to add an additional counselor next year to the school’s current six-member guidance staff.

“While [a 1:250 ratio] isn’t necessarily ideal, we won’t be at an unacceptable level,” he said.

Also requested was a part-time dean. Neighboring schools of similar size, including Staples High School in Westport, have as many as six to eight administrators.

In contrast, Newtown High School has only two: Assistant Principals Jules Triber and Lorrie Aresenian.

Mr Triber will be retiring in June. His position should be filled in time for the 2004–05 school year.

An additional half-time dean, Mr Manfredonia said, would ease the immense amount of work serving the school’s nearly 1,600-student body.

Mr Manfredonia also requested a $50,000 track refurbishment project and additional parking and lot sealing that would total $34,800.

Reed School

Reed Intermediate School Principal Donna Denniston described her enrollment numbers as “very constant.” Her one “dilemma,” she said, would be adding an additional sixth grade two-teacher team consisting of a language arts and math/science teacher. The addition of a team would lower overall class size to 22–23 students. Without a team, the numbers could climb to 25–26 students.

Ms Denniston is also requesting part-time art, music, health, and physical education positions, as well as a 15-hour-per-week media assistant position in the school’s growing library/media center. The media assistant position is noncertified.

Ms Denniston further proposed hiring a second guidance counselor to ease Reed’s relatively high volume of students.

While no maintenance work had to be done to the recently constructed building, Ms Denniston is interested in expanding the school’s library to 21,000 books over the course of the next year or two. The library currently holds 8,300 books. She also requested $30,847 in an expanded offering of extracurricular activities and a $2,900 octave marimba xylophone for the school’s popular music program.

Middle School

Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock’s seventh grade numbers are expected to increase over the 2004–05 school year. The total number of students could increase from 854 to nearly 900. She discussed the dilemma of hiring more seventh grade teachers for the school’s booming population.

“It’s really a question of hiring four next year or two this year and two next year,” she said. “I would rather not hire [all the teachers] at once.”

She also requested expanding the educational assistant position by five hours per week and 1/7 more hours for the physical education teacher.

A number of maintenance and equipment requests were also made for the aging school, whose constructs consist of a more than 20-year-old main building and more recent additions. Requests include a $75,000 ADA compliance, $30,000 in paving and drainage repairs, and a $14,500 replacement of nearly crumbling stage curtains.

Elementary Schools

Elementary school requests, with less elaborate curriculum, smaller grade sizes, and fewer extracurricular activities, translated to less complex and potentially expensive budgets.

Sandy Hook School Principal Donna Pagé requested an additional first, second, and third grade teacher to ease growing grade sizes. She also requested more training for her “highly qualified” but still new-to-the-school staff. “We have a very young faculty,” she said.

Other requests included a five-day extension to the work schedules of the school’s language arts consultant, math/science specialist, and library/media specialist, as well as an additional special education staff member and part-time technology specialists.

Also proposed was a partially approved long-term carpet replacement plan that would total $22,000 as well as some mat replacements and the $8,000 addition of a physical education department storage facility.

Middle Gate Principal Judy Gallo requested a first grade teacher to handle the grade level’s booming population, as well as a technology teacher, half-time physical education teacher, and a five-day extension to the school’s lead teacher and library/media specialist work schedules.

Also requested were several maintenance and equipment proposals, including a five-classroom $15,000 floor replacement project and cafeteria ceiling and lighting repairs that would total $20,000.

While Head O’ Meadow Principal Bill Bircher had no additional staffing requests, he was interested in adding a lead teacher position to his staff. Lead teachers, chosen from existing faculty, are given additional responsibilities beyond teaching, including activity scheduling and other projects. Mr Bircher also requested replacing vinyl siding at a cost of $70,000. “Bees are currently nesting [in the sides of the building],” he said, “presenting a health risk to our students.”

Also requested was the $15,000 chlorination system needed until the school is connected to the town’s main waterline within the next six or seven years.

Hawley Elementary School Principal JoAnn Peters suggested adding an elementary school-level technology specialist that could be shared with neighboring elementary schools.

She also requested a $175,000 generator. “We are the only school not to have one,” she said, discussing the importance of implementing one in today’s post-9/11 society.

“Implementing this generator would provide heat and lighting to every level of the school in case of a power outage,” she said.

Dr Pitkoff will cull data from the presentations into an official report that will be deliberated by the board during its next meeting, January 6.