By:LARRY MAIER
The votes are in and the ayes have it.
After months of study, deliberation, and reflection, the Baldwin School Board directed Superintendent Kathy Weiss to institute a full-day kindergarten program and reduce class sizes for the 2001-2002 school year.
Under the directive of the board, class sizes will be limited to 22 students in grades K-2 and 25 students in grades 3-5 for the next school year.
While these limits do represent reductions, they are not as substantial as those requested in November by the class-size reduction committee. That committee had recommended a three-year phase-in plan that would eventually limit class sizes to 20 students in grades K-2, 23 students in grade 4 and 25 students in grade 5.
The vote was not unanimous, as rookie board member William Edelman, who spoke out in favor of a more aggressive class-size reduction plan at the expense of full-day K back in February, abstained.
I was not against the proposal but I felt there might have been a different approach, Edelman said the day after the vote. Edelman added that he would fully support the decision of the board now that the vote has passed.
The remaining board members, President Mary Jo Hagan, Vice President James Scannell, Carol Baken and B.A. Schoen, all voted to accept the superintendent's proposal in its original form.
Space, money and commitment key
All of the board members said they would have liked to see more extensive reductions in class sizes and hope to see greater reductions in the future. However, the consensus among the board was that the space and, more important, the money exists now for the district to begin a full-day K program.
According to district officials, Baldwin is eligible for a one-time, $445,320 grant from New York State to start a full-day kindergarten program.
Right now there is some money to help us do what we want to do, said Schoen. I really am afraid if we do not put all-day K in now, we will miss that opportunity.
Hagan said that for the last 10 to 15 years there has been an unspoken commitment from the district to the community to look into establishing a full-day K program when the opportunity presented itself.
Hagan called the superintendent's recommendation a preliminary step toward even greater class-size reductions and said she was not willing to jettison all-day K because the recommendation did not cut class sizes as much as she would have liked.
Baken said she, too, has heard the cries from the district for full-day K during her nine-year tenure on the board and added that, in light of the state funding available to the district, now is the time for full-day K.
Scannell said he felt the district had an opportunity to take a bold step and institute more drastic reductions in class sizes. He added that, like Edelman, he leaned toward greater class-size reductions but ultimately decided to vote in favor of what he termed the board's consensus.
It is not exactly what I would have created, but I can live with it nonetheless, Scannell said.
No more debate
The community input portion of the board meeting was, for the first time in months, free from debate between class-size reduction and full-day K advocates.
Those in attendance congratulated the board members for their diligence, encouraged the board to continue working toward greater class-size reductions and pledged to help get the budget passed when the vote on it takes place May 15.
