ROCKPORT — A group of first-grade mothers are questioning the judgment of Camden-Rockport Elementary School administrators as next year’s classes get organized. They, and other parents, do not favor the current plan of distributing the second graders to three separate classrooms, instead of four classrooms, as they now are in first grade.

They maintain that the $73,000 needed to cover the salary and benefits to hire another second grade teacher is available, and could be taken from the School Administrative District’s capital improvement fund, which now totals $704,150.

But School Administrative District 28 Superintendent Maria Libby is firm in that the school is adhering to district policy in shaping next year’s classroom sizes, and that should even more second graders enroll in CRES next fall, the district could hire another teacher.

“From a larger district perspective, it’s not a unique issue,” said Libby, on April 11. “We’ve never been in a situation where we have been way over class size and have not done anything.”

The two strong, and distinct positions, will likely get debated Wednesday evening, April 12, at a regularly scheduled SAD 28 School Board meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the CRES Atrium, on Route 90. The meeting’s agenda includes finalizing the $13.4 million 2017-2018 budget for grades K-8 before it goes to voters at annual town meeting polls in June. (See the proposed budget here)

The meetings are not televised or recorded — another practice that the parents disagree with administrators about — so they are encouraging other parents via Facebook and email to attend.

Heidi Baker, Jasmine Pike, Elizabeth Senders, Jackie Gelwix and Marci Annis, all mothers of first graders, gathered April 7 for coffee at Three Dogs Cafe, in Rockport, to talk about their concerns. They know each other through school activities, and three of them – Senders, Annis and Pike — are themselves graduates of the Camden-Rockport school system. They know and respect many of the teachers, as well as Principal Chris Walker-Spencer, and are avid supporters of the school. They volunteer in the classroom, on the playground, wherever needed.

But they disagree on this point, and question the decision by the school board and Libby to increase the class size, especially for what they describe is a lively set of second graders. They advocate for hiring another second grade teacher now, in anticipation of next September’s numbers.

“If they already have the money sitting there, why not use it,” said Gelwix. “If the budget is tight, I can understand. But if you have a surplus, that’s what it is there for. It is for the betterment of the students.”

Libby is not framing it in those terms, however. 

“This is not a financial issue,” she said. “This is about being honest about the money we need to spend. The taxpayer expects me to spend money wisely on behalf of citizens of the towns.”

The issue

Currently, there are 80 first graders at CRES. Of those, 12 are in two multi-age classrooms. The rest are in four separate classes, with four different teachers. Each class has 16-17 students. 

Next year, the 12 in multi-age will remain in their same classes, but the others will be redirected to three classrooms and three teachers, with 22 students in each class. 

Over the past 10 years, second grade class sizes at CRES have hovered between 16-17 students. (See attached PDF for a 10-year history of class sizes at CRES, as compiled by Annis.)

“Three times in 10 years, they could have eliminated a teaching position for second grade, but they did not, and they maintained the 16-17 kid-to-teacher ratio,” said Annis, of Rockport, who has a first grade daughter heading into second grade next fall. 

SAD 28 policy regulates class size in every grade, and currently, the minimum for each second grade class is 20 students while the maximum is 22. The same holds for third grade, but by the fourth grade, the maximum is 23.

This year, there are three second grade classrooms, with classes sizes of 18, 19 and 20.

In 2015-16, there were four second grade classrooms, each with 17 students.

“Our first grade students currently have class sizes of 16-17,” wrote Annis, in an April 1 letter that she sent to parents of first graders. “With the elimination of a teacher, class sizes will jump by 5-6 students, maxing out class sizes at 22. If any new students join the second grade, we will be over our districts classroom size policy. In addition to the teaching position, CRES is losing an ed-tech to CRMS decreasing the support our students will have access to.”

She researched class sizes over the past 10 years in SAD 28, K-4 grades and concluded:

“Historical classroom size data for CRES shows that in the last 10 years we have not once hit the maximum classroom size (22) for second grade. In 6 out of the last 10 years the second grade hasn’t even hit our minimum class size policy of 20; furthermore, in 3 out of the last 10 years we could have eliminated a similar position to the one proposed and still been at the CRES class policy, however we did not. Only twice in 10 years have we hit that maximum for grades k-4. One of those years is our current 3rd grade classrooms and the other was a 4th grade class in the 2010-11 school year. This is a true testament to the desire to keep class sizes small within our district.”

The parents are supporters of the school — it is “run really well,” the mothers agree. But they are aware of dynamics among the students, and are worried that the teachers will get distracted with more students in their rooms.

“I’m proud to have these great schools,” said Elizabeth Senders. “Twenty-two is not going to kill our kids, but if it is a trend, that’s not good. We want to keep attracting great teachers.”

The district response

According to Libby, next year’s fourth grade class also runs the possibility of bumping against maximum class size numbers.

The total class sizes at CRES run between 61 (this year’s kindergarten class) and 91 (this year’s third grade class). But in general, said Libby, total grade enrollments are relatively stable and are in the vicinity of 70 to 80 students. Some students arrive unannounced in September, others move away, and there are always minor fluctuations.

The school board recently lowered the kindergarten maximum class size to 15-18 students.

In the spring, administrators determine how many classes are possible, “to see if we are in range” of policy guidelines, said Libby

“There are times we go below that [the minimum] and it may occasionally happen that we are above it by one or two students,” said Libby. “It’s a range and the board gives leeway in every school knowing that the sizes change.”

At the middle and high schools, administrators don’t make a change, unless there is a larger issue. At CRES, there is wiggle room, she said. Perhaps this coming year, more students could be enrolled in the multi-age classrooms, which are not at maximum load.

“If we had a large influx of students, we would hire a teacher,” she said.

In qualifying that “large influx,” she said, “more than a few.”

“This is not a unique situation and we keep a close watch on these numbers,” said Libby. “We are very lucky in our district that our school board and community respect the small class size. Our policies reflect a philosophy to have small class sizes.”

But Libby is specific about the policy, and any suggestion that the district is tucking away money for the new middle school project at the expense of classroom sizes strikes her as wrong.

“It doesn’t matter if we are building a new school or not,” she said. “This is about the integrity of my responsibility to use resources wisely.”

SAD 28 is budgeting more funds this year into its $704,000 capital reserve fund, with a target total of $1.1 million.

Clarification: From SAD 28 Finance Director Cathy Murphy, on April 12, “We are increasing the amount we are transferring from our ‘undesignated fund balance,’  to our capital maintenance reserve, which does not impact the budget at all. The amount we are ‘raising’ in the budget for capital repairs in the operations and maintenance line this year is $275,000, down from $325,000 last year, so we have actually decreased the amount we are raising in the budget for either repairs to the current Middle School facility or to offset the impact to the taxpayers on a new bond.”

That money, Libby said, is either to help reduce the debt load on Camden and Rockport taxpayers, if they vote to approve a $26 million bond this coming June to build a new Camden-Rockport Middle School on Knowlton Street in Camden.

If that bond proposal is turned down by voters, then the money will be used to make necessary building repairs at the existing middle school.

“It is true that we are prudently planning ahead for the middle school project, and putting money in the bank,” she said.

But, she reiterated: “That is totally separate from the question of the second grade teachers.”

The mothers who spoke said they were firmly supportive of the middle school project, and they understand that, in the words of parent Erin Donovan, “classrooms are bursting with energy from 16-plus children with unique and competing needs interests and abilities, all of which are being managed by a single teacher.”

Donovan said she respects that there is money that “reaches over every operational facet of CRES and that our elementary school is fortunate (sad to use this word, though!) to have full-time teachers in the way of phys ed, Spanish, music, library, and art.”

She was also frank in placing the classroom size issue in the larger weave of local education matters.

“I want to be expressly clear that I believe our school aches for more of these kind of specialties so preserving what we have already is of paramount importance, but I also see that there are very vocal parent bodies in our community advocating for more sleep for teenagers, hence the late start initiative, and no homework for young ones, a la our new elementary protocol, and most of all, the need for a new middle school,” she said. “It seems counter-intuitive then if parents can steer the course in these matters that we wouldn't speak up when decisions are being made that might negatively affect our children's academic success and classroom comfort.”

Casas, meanwhile, understands Libby’s fiscal concerns, but she plans to advocate for another second grade teacher before the school board on April 12, and again at the May 23 public budget hearing, “if necessary,” she said.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657