Five new T.A.s for district?

The Board is considering adding five new teaching assistants in the elementary schools to help students struggling with math.

Alex Costello/Herald

As part of its ongoing budget discussions last week, the Board of Education considered adding more teaching assistants to the elementary schools to help students struggling with math.

Though the board has been discussing the proposed 2015-16 budget for over a month, the meeting on March 24 was the first time trustees had discussed staffing, one of the more important issues they raised.

Based on current and projected enrollment for next year, Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said, the district is likely to have 76 elementary school classes, or sections. How they will be distributed among the schools will be discussed this summer.

This year there are 77 sections, and Johnson recommended budgeting for 77 teachers — a common practice in the district, in case an influx of students after the budget is passed forces the district to create another section.

Johnson also proposed hiring five more teaching assistants — one for each elementary school — and another Math Implementation/Academic Intervention Services teacher for the elementary schools. The district currently has two of these teachers, shared by all five elementary schools, who help students with math (compared with 14 teachers who offer standard academic support and help with reading comprehension).

The district has seen a sharp increase in the number of students who need extra help with math in recent years — 10 to 15 percent, according to Johnson. “There are kids truly struggling with Common Core in ways their older brothers and sisters didn’t with the older curriculum,” he said.

But the Board of Education, and the elementary school principals, said they weren’t sure whether a third special math teacher would be necessary.

According to the plan discussed at the meeting, the new T.A.s would focus on math. That would free up the AIS teachers to help other elementary teachers develop the best methods of teaching Common Core math. Ideally, the principals said, fewer students would need AIS services, while students who needed extra help would get it.