Superintendent Landis presents the district's reasoning
POTTSTOWN PA – In promoting the creation of grade-level education centers as a means to balance elementary student population in the Pottsgrove School District, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis explained Tuesday (Jan. 24, 2012), his administration has two goals: it hopes to improve educational programs, and it hopes to save money.
And, Landis repeatedly indicated, the two are not mutually exclusive.
Landis, the district’s chief operating officer, used that premise for his own 20-minute explanation of Pottsgrove’s reasoning behind its favored choice for redistricting. His talk and slide show, which followed one that was similar but less detailed and presented two weeks earlier by Director of Education and Assessment Todd Davies, opened public discussion of the subject during this week’s Board of School Directors’ meeting.
The district proposes to reorganize grade structures at its Lower Pottsgrove, West Pottsgrove, ad Ringing Rocks elementary schools. Rather than all cater to kindergarten through 5th grades, Ringing and West would teach only K-2, and Lower would teach only 3-5. The district’s only proposed alternative, so far, is to re-draw boundary lines that keep the K-5 structure and make minor population shifts.
As with the Davies’ presenation, however, Landis’ slides again lack descriptions to help make them understood. In an attempt to provide that understanding, The Post is reproducing 17 key slides of 23 presented (the first two slides are a combination of four originals), and is supplying them with captions that offer a second nutshell interpretation of the district’s case for the centers.
- The Post invites reader comments on these slides. It also invites the district to provide a written transcript or audio commentary to augment the presentation, or for separate download, so the slides can be interpreted in the way the district prefers.
There is a “large disparity” (above) between classes sizes across the elementary schools. The chart’s green section, which represents current school configurations, shows some classes in Lower hold between 20 and 24 students each. Some classes in Ringing and West range from a low of 20 students to a high of 26. The administration wants to reduce class sizes and even the numbers out by redistributing students; to do that, it favors creating grade-level centers. Depending on which streets (yellow section, Charlotte Street; and blue, Hanover Street and Orlando Road) are chosen as boundary lines for the centers model, class sizes in K-2 Ringing and West could vary between 18 and 22 students, and in 3-5 Lower between 23 and 25 students.
The district also wants to expand its full-day kindergarten (referred to by Landis as the “FDK program”), which it believes could help all Pottsgrove students learn to read by age 3. FDK currently is limited by space and finances. The centers model under either boundary would provide at least the space, if not the money, to offer full-day sessions to every kindergartner, he said.
Pottsgrove’s first FDK opened in 2005, Davies said. Its students (the “cohort”) were specifically chosen in part because of learning difficulties they exhibited in reading and math. Assessments of those initial FDK students’ abilities (in blue on the chart above), taken during 2010 (third grade) and 2011 (fourth), showed they had made significant progress in catching up with the abilities of their peers across the grade levels (in red). In fact, Landis said, by fourth grade the reading “gap” (far right) had almost closed entirely. While not conclusive proof, Landis contended the evidence so far shows the value of FDK and its worthiness to be expanded across the district.
Federal education standards for kindergarteners are changing, Landis said. By 2013 they will be expected to accomplish, at the school year’s end, what was once demanded of first-graders. This matrix (above) compares the current and future standards.
Moving to a centers model would allow the district to bring back to its schools special education students for whom it must now pay to be educated elsewhere, Landis said. Bringing these students back, he added, also ensures the district complies with federal mandates that special ed students learn in the least restrictive environment available: their home schools.
Landis argued the centers model would help create more (above), and more specialized, special ed classes to which students could return.
Like all school districts in Pennsylvania, Landis said, the state’s Act 1 index limits the percentage amount by which it can raise taxes without calling for a public referendum. Because property owners want to pay as few taxes as possible, most such referendums fail; districts, therefore, are loathe to try them. The index itself represents a combination of two figures: the statewide average weekly wage, and the employment cost index for elementary and secondary education.
Four and five years ago, when the economy was booming, Pottsgrove’s Act 1 index allowed it to raise taxes by as much as 4.4 percent. The economy fell, and so did the district’s percentage. During the next school year, 2012-’13, it would normally be forced to cap a tax hike at 1.7 percent. Because Pottsgrove is a comparatively poorer district, however, the state adjusted the index somewhat, to a maximum 2.2-percent tax increase.
During the same boom years, and even before, according to Landis, the state also was raising the amounts of money it gave to schools districts as subsidies. Pottsgrove did very well (above) in receiving state cash. In 2009-’10 and 2010-’11, though, the state was hit with its own financial problems as the boom petered out. Pennsylvania took federal money meant to supplement the economy, and instead substituted it for the subsidies. Now that the fed funds are all gone, Pottsgrove’s subsidy from the state dropped in 2011-2012, and likely will drop once more in 2012-’13, Business Manager David Nester anticipates.
Things get worse, Landis claimed. Pottsgrove must negotiate a new labor agreement with its teachers; right now it has budgeted an extra $683,000 for the cost. Its state mandated retirement costs will rise; add another $986,000. Keeping up with rising costs for its self-insured health care plan will add $685,000 more, Nester said. Combined, the new expenses represent $2.35 million. Pottsgrove’s Act 1 index (and some exceptions it might claim), on the other hand, allows it to take in only an additional $1.23 million. Without cost-cutting, Landis said, Pottsgrove starts next year $1.12 million in the red.
The district has already eliminated some staff positions to save money, Landis said. It may have to cut even further. All district employees, but primarily the teachers and affiliated staff, agreed to a wage freeze for the current budget year that saved big money, but there’s no guarantee the same level of savings is possible for 2012-’13.
Grade-level enters, Landis believes, will increase the district’s educational efficiency, and it should save some money.
Moreover, Pottsgrove already has in place the basics of programs to improve teacher quality, Assistant Superintendent Shellie Feola claimed. The better the teachers become, she said, the more students improve.
Centers would allow teachers to work together on education plans, to collaborate on instructional practices, to more quickly assess student needs. All those factors, Landis said, also improve instruction.
Pottsgrove parents have openly worried that centers would cause their kids to be on buses longer, and that transportation for centers would cost more. Yes, Landis agreed, bus run times would lengthen slightly, but not significantly. There would be no need to buy more buses, he added.
Bus runs for the centers would cost more in fuel, too, but again, Landis argued, not significantly.
Here’s the bottom line, Landis concluded: 1) although centers could help the district save some money, 2) the centers also could ensure students would be better educated by a high quality, collaborative teaching staff. Pottsgrove will still need to raise taxes. It hopes for, but cannot guarantee, an expansion of full-day kindergarten. It may need to make further staff cuts, or trim other expenses. But it will be better positioned in the long run, Landis said, for both student improvement and whatever economic troubles still await.
Related (to Pottsgrove School District redistricting):
Slide illustrations from the Pottsgrove School District, with combinations by The Post
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