Loudoun schools will have fewer middle and high school students per classroom in the fall, but School Board Chairman John Andrews is not satisfied.
He voted against the school budget last week, because he wanted to reduce the number of high school students in a classroom from an average of 26.6 to 25.6 or one less student. The School Board, however, approved a budget that lowered the number of students from an average of 26.6 to 26.1 or half a student. To accomplish that, the school district will have to hire an average of 12.8 additional teachers. Under Andrews' proposal, another 10 teachers or a total of 22.8 would have been hired.
"Last year I wasn't going to vote for the budget, because I didn't think it did enough to support smaller classroom sizes. I supported it anyway," said Andrews, who was then vice-chairman. "Even being chairman, I couldn't do it two years in a row."
Andrews said his concern this year was at the secondary level. "We have one of the highest high school classroom size in the region," he said. "With as much pressure there is on young people in high school, not only passing SOLs (Standards of Learning) but performing well to get into colleges, we should have put a little more emphasis on decreasing the class sizes."
In FY03, high school classroom sizes were an average of 24.6 in Fairfax County, 25.5 in Montgomery County and 21 in Prince William County, according to reports.
THE SCHOOL BOARD also supported a decrease in the Middle School classroom size from 22 to 21 students. There were enough additional middle school teachers in the budget to support this decision. The board also decided to delay a reduction in the Algebra and English teaching load in the middle school. The elementary school average of 22.5 students per classroom remained the same.
The state legislature and the county Board of Supervisors were credited with Loudoun's ability to reduce classroom size. The General Assembly gave Loudoun County an additional $6.8 million in educational aid for FY05. The board voted to use all of the funding for the schools rather than retain a portion for general fund purposes. Consequently, the School Board needed to find $5.2 million in cuts instead of the $12 million originally mandated by the supervisors. The School Board approved a $461,233,715 budget, an increase of 18.2 percent over the FY04 $390,211,766 budget.
The board's curriculum and instruction committee recently reviewed a report on the effects of class size on student achievement. The study indicated "strong student achievement gains" in classroom sizes of 14 to 17 students, with the most significant improvement seen in minority students. The study also found that student achievement was highest in high schools with 900 to 1200 students. The School Board considered increasing the size of its schools and classrooms earlier in the budget process, because it feared the legislature would dole out fewer dollars and the supervisors were looking for additional cuts. The Capital Improvements Program budget includes plans for four new elementary schools with an increased seating capacity of 100 or a total of 900 students in each building.
ANDREWS' MOTION Tuesday to cut salary increases by 0.40 percent for a savings of $834,040 failed. But the board supported his move to restore five elementary foreign language teaching positions.
The teachers received a 3 percent salary increase and an average of 3.1 percent step increase based on their performance evaluations.
Before the budget vote, Superintendent Edgar Hatrick and Andrews made a list of budget cuts, which won the support of the board and resulted in all school staff keeping their jobs. The number of additional Special Education teaching positions, however, was cut from 55.5 to 52.5. The budget decreased the number of grades that will take the annual Stanford tests from three to two. Third and eighth grade students will take the tests instead of fourth, sixth and ninth graders. As a result of the budget cuts, the board also:
· Deferred buying new reading textbooks for a year.
· Decided to replace computers every four years instead of every three.
· Made a number of reductions in curriculum and instruction involving math, reading, health, the gifted program, kindergarten, and other programs.
· Eliminated the contingency fund for potential fuel cost increases. Andrews said he had never passed a budget without a contingency fund, but if the superintendent expressed confidence that the buses would not "sputter down the street," then he would not oppose it.
Bob Ohneiser (R-Broad Run) made several unsuccessful motions to raise money or eliminate positions so the board would not have to cut into curriculum and instruction. He proposed eliminating the athletic trainers at a savings of $526,000 and assistant athletic directors at a savings of $658,000.
Hatrick said the athletic trainer's position is warranted on the basis on safety.
J. Warren Guerin (Sterling) said one of the most important aspects of high school interscholastic sports competition is safety.
The other position is needed because the coaches cannot handle all of the sports, which have had grown in recent years, according to Hatrick.