The K-L Board of Education meets tonight for the last time before they adopt their revised version of the superintendent's proposed budget, on March 25.

On deck for discussion are previously suggested cost-saving proposals such as busing alternatives and administrative costs, as well as some new suggestions in the areas of elementary library services and substitute teacher costs.

Here's a recap of last week's meeting:

Board of Education President Michael Gordon kicked off the discussion at last week's budget session by asking BOE members to voice recommended revisions to the proposed budget through a filter of absolute necessity to instructional goals.  Though in no way were discussions final, board members presented their initial leanings.

Music and Art

Based on the roundtable that followed, the board's budget is likely to restore, or partially restore music and art positions.  Board members overwhelmingly articulated the desire to add two music positions and one art position back to the elementary schools. 

Though in favor of restoring art, Gordon wanted to understand the impact of losing 15 minutes of instructional time in the subject.

He received his answer from art teacher Wendy Alvarez, who spoke during the public forum.  "Art is a process that takes time," she said. 

She described a full hour which included time spent reviewing a new concept which is often interdisciplinary, discussion and demonstration of new techniques, children creating their art, critique and discussion, and cleanup.  No part of the hour was expendable, according to Alvarez.

Her position was supported by John Jay grad and current Mamaroneck art teacher Adam Rizzuti, who said that John Jay's art program provided him with outstanding opportunities and "changed his life forever."

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Alice Cronin explained how a partial restoration of art and music positions could lead to an arts schedule varied by grade.  "In other districts in the region, they might offer art once a week for K-2 and add 30 minutes per year in grades 3-5," she said.

Class Sizes

The board differed on class size solutions.  Mark Lipton was in favor of adding three elementary teachers back to the budget in order to bring down first grade class sizes at Katonah Elementary, Increase Miller and Meadow Pond.  Eve Hundt agreed, but added that they should look at keeping all class sizes small in grades K-2, where it will have the most impact.

Janet Harckham and Peter Treyz countered by saying that it was the quality of the teachers not the size of the class that mattered.  "Next year our health care and retirement costs will rise again; we're just setting ourselves up if we reduce K-2 across the board." 

Gordon supported the addition of a position at KES, noting while it singled a particular school out for benefit, the large increase in size was unique to KES.  "It's a 43 percent increase in size from kindergarten to first grade there, and at other schools it's an average of 6 percent.  That's too drastic."

Offsetting Staff Additions

The board deliberated over ways to make any additions back to the budget dollar neutral. 

About half were in favor of reducing FLES at a savings of two full-time positions, and eliminating 6^th grade language at a savings of two positions.  The remaining members equated the program with music and the arts, noting the importance of global language skills. 

"We just started it and it's too soon to give up," said Gordon.  He was in favor of eliminating the 8^th grade team concept, which provides a middle school environment for 8^th graders.  Without teams, students would spend four, not five, periods in academic instruction—the fifth would be a monitored study hall.

Cronin cautioned that, while eliminating teaming would save two full-time jobs, many students simply weren't ready for the high school schedules that would replace moving from class to class with a cohort.  

The board mostly agreed on the issue of guidance counselors, supporting the idea of restoring one of the two proposed reductions. 

A new area of discussion was the reduction of substitute teachers as a way to cut costs--$200,000 is spent annually in both the middle and high schools.  Lipton suggested having parent volunteers supervise high school students.

"We've checked with legal and volunteers would have to go through security measures such as fingerprinting and workshop training," said Jumper, in an interview after the meeting.  The likelihood of finding volunteers to jump through those hoops was slim, and, he added, the current subs were a valuable part of the district staff.

Tonight's meeting will further clarify the subs issue, plus cover administrative cost questions raised at last week's meeting.

The meeting will take place at 8:00 p.m. in the John Jay High School