Williamstown School Committee OKs Third Half-Day Preschool Section
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Elementary School Committee on Wednesday approved a plan to add a third half-day session to the school's Side-By-Side special education preschool program.
In a unanimous vote, the committee agreed to ask the town for an additional $58,424 on the budget it approved earlier this spring. The school is seeking about $6.14 million from the town for fiscal 2017, a 6.35 percent increase over this year.
The increased appropriation would cover increased salary and benefits for a half-time teacher and half-time paraprofessional and the reinstatement of the mid-day bus, which was previously excised from the budget.
As has been the pattern for several months, the public comment portion of the meeting was dominated by talk of the full-day preschool program, which has been eliminated in the FY17 budget.
"Part of the needs of the students is making sure their [individualized education plans] are met," Maury McCarthy Lawson told the committee. "That means for children who need a full-day program, their need is not to repeat what they did in the morning."
Lawson went on to accuse the elementary school of not meeting the individual education plans (IEPs) of students with special education needs, a charge that Superintendent Douglas Dias immediately denied.
"I have no evidence that is true," Dias said at the conclusion of Lawson's remarks. "I know that all of the expectations on students' IEPs are being met."
IEPs come into play because Side-By-Side is a special education program, designed to serve the needs of the district's 3- and 4-year-olds who have special needs. The name Side-By-Side stems from the fact that, by design, special education students are educated alongside typically developing peers.
The parent of a child on an IEP also refuted Lawson's accusation.
"Our current director of pupil personnel services has not at one time in any of the cases we've been there for — have we ever gotten pushback on anything special-education related," said Matt Hane, a member of the school's Parent Advisory Committee, an advocacy group for families with children with special needs. "If a child asks for it, they get it."
Hane echoed the administration's point that Side-By-Side exists to serve the special needs population.
"It's not a preschool program," Hane said. "It's a special education program. If you'd like a preschool program, by all means start one, but this is not it."
On the other side of the issue, Steven Miller, who long has argued that the full-day Side-By-Side section could help make the program self-sustainable from a financial standpoint, told the committee there is time to run the numbers again before the May 17 annual town meeting.
"One point mentioned by the [town's] Finance Committee was the need for financial analysis of all the options, including full-day and half-day," Miller said. "I think this is a good way for us to come together as a community. I'd be happy to assist the School Committee in doing the analysis."
Special education children attend Side-By-Side free of charge, but the families of those typically developing peers pay tuition. In the past, Miller has presented the School Committee with evidence that tuition revenue from the full-day program, perhaps even at a higher rate of tuition, would allow the school to continue to offer preschool options to more families in town.
Finance Committee member Charles Fox took the floor to praise Miller and yield the majority of his allotted time to the Williams math professor and member of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.
"We have had a successful program that has served the educational and fiscal needs of the school for many years," Miller said when he returned to the microphone. "When you have something as good as this, you don't throw it away quickly. We should have several years of data of how expensive it is to run half-day and full-day programs.
"Let's give the Finance Committee and voters a full analysis ... list expenses, students served, benefits to the community both long term and short term.
"There are a lot of people who are dedicated and passionate and willing to help with their wallets and their time."
Dias addressed the issue of fiscal balance sheets head on.
"Schools do a variety of things to generate revenue, but none of them are, in my opinion, palatable," Dias said. "A public school is based on providing a free and appropriate education. Yes, we do charge kids for things here and there. In my experience [at other districts], we've charged for busing, parking, activities.
"It frustrates me when people say we can earn money for a school program when we charge a little bit here and a little bit there. It's a very slippery slope. I'm not looking to propose that a special education program be used to generate revenue."
Dias appeared to have the support of the School Committee members in his effort to keep the focus of Side-By-Side on the special needs population.
Joe Johnson, wrapping up the first year of his three-year term on the committee, noted that the issues related to special education and the proper ratios of SPED and general education students in the preschool program are complex.
"It feels like we have professionals in the building who feel the needs of the small number of kids with special needs could be met," Johnson said. "It's not unreasonable to say the program could accordian with the needs of the special needs population. ... I'm not educated enough to look at that decision and say it's clearly wrong. But I don't think it's clearly wrong. To me, it seems reasonable."
Cathy Keating, who joined the committee along with Johnson in May 2015, agreed.
"This is a special education program, and I think numbers wise ... we could have fit it into two half-day programs if we had to," Keating said. "We're not. But if you go to a full-day program, the ratio is way lower than it needs to be, and that's not the purpose of the program. It's not a preschool program."
In addition to his concerns about the focus of Side-By-Side, Dias has raised issues of equity and access for the general education population. To that end, his new budget assumes that all of the students who will fill the third section of the preschool program will have their tuition waived. In other words, the revised budget includes no revenue offsets from tuition.
Director of Pupil Personnel Services Kim Grady told the School Committee on Wednesday that about 22 percent of the elementary school's school-age [K-through-6] population qualifies for free or reduced lunch based on their families' finances. That is up from recent years, when that number was as low as 16 percent.
Obviously, not all of the children in the third half-day section will qualify for financial assistance, but the new budget model reflects the administration's commitment to make sure that children — selected by lottery for the non-SPED slots — are not turned away because their families cannot afford to pay.
Side-By-Side teacher Fern Murtagh applauded the move to increase access through financial aid but questioned the timing.
When Dias announced his intention to add a third half-day section, he noted that it would allow the school to accommodate all the families who entered the recently completed entry lottery.
"Many parents may not have applied for space in Side-By-Side because they've known in the past they couldn't afford it," Murtagh said. "Think about is there a way to open it up to people who may not have realized you'd offer more financial aid."
Murtagh also said the school is not serving financially-strapped families by taking away the full-day option.
"I think increased access is critical," Murtagh said. "A half-day program limits parents' ability to work because it's just about three hours a day. Looking at parents who need financial assistance, a longer program might give them more than a half-day."
School Committee member John Skavlem said he shared Murtagh's concern about the timing of the added half-day section.
"The objective, obviously well intended, was to meet the needs of everyone interested in the program this year," Skavlem said. "It will be an evolving process on how that financial aid ... is determined."
The School Committee will hold a joint meeting with the Finance Committee on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall to consider the new budget in advance of Tuesday's annual town meeting.
Selectman and school parent Hugh Daley reminded everyone in the room of what will be at stake on Tuesday night.
"This budget, when it hits the floor of town meeting, will already be contentious," Daley said to an audience comprised mostly of his fellow elementary school parents. "The amount of money we're asking for to support the school is already more than most people will expect.
"I think Doug and Kim, the entire team here, we're fortunate to have these professionals working for us. If we internally generate opposition to this budget, we're going to have a real problem at town meeting. I'm hopeful everyone here will stand up at town meeting for WES."
Tags: preschool, school budget, WES,
