Jennifer, I never mentioned decreasing "services." I tried to say that we have lost 20 % of our student body over the last 10 years and our school expenditures has gone up 25% during that time (not counting inflation). Maybe we should start to look at optimizing the things we do to be able to offer more, not less to our students. If there's money left, we can use it to defray next year's budget override, as I doubt that the teachers union will accept the 1% salary increase predicted in next year's Budget. I am all for paying the teachers and staff well, maybe just a fewer number of them.
Special Education is super important for so many reasons, so don't worry. Peter On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 9:46 PM Jennifer Saffran <jennifer.saff...@gmail.com> wrote: > You mentioned decreasing “special” services. If you mean special > education, understand that there are complex state and federal laws and > regulations that govern these. > > The good news is that the additional staff that is demanded, particularly > in-classroom aides and paraprofessionals lower the student to staff ratios. > Also, funding for special education is a combination of local, state, and > federal dollars. The LEA (local school district) is not responsible for > paying for all of it. > > > > On Jan 31, 2023, at 9:18 PM, Andy Wang <andyrw...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Peter, > > I was just keying off of something you said "The recently approved FY24 > Budget contradicts the chart as it funds 4 classroom teachers per each 6, 7 > and 8 grade. " What are you keying off of in the budget? How are you > counting teachers where there are ones that teach sections across grades > and specialists? I was just pointing out that while there were 4 > homeroom teachers in 6th, but there are only 3 sections for the kids. > Those teachers don't 'just have homeroom duties', like my kid's homeroom > teacher is also his ELA teacher. > > Parents can certainly voice concerns. Gifted children want extra > attention, and parents of gifted kids advocate for that. Struggling > students want extra attention, and those parents advocate for them. It IS > complicated in the sense that you need to optimize across a wide range of > students and abilities, and philosophical stance on what it means to be a > student at Lincoln Public Schools and there are trades that need to be > made. I mean, do you KNOW that the administration hasn't looked at ways of > optimizing things? > > When it comes down to it, I'm happy to wax philosophical on Lincoln Talk > all day long (clearly), but my parting point was just that the school > committee is elected and folks should be electing people who they think > represent their views. There are many ways to focus the school. We could > teach more to the MCAS and increase that ranking, we could make larger > classes, remove special programs, decrease special services, increase > gifted programs, decrease spending. All of those things come with > trade-offs and those decisions are not going to be made here. And only > foot stomping this stronger now cause deadline to pull papers is tomorrow. > > - Andy > > > > On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 8:53 PM Peter Buchthal <pbucht...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Andy, >> >> I don't see your distinction between listed teachers who have classrooms >> for core subjects and other teachers who apparently just host homeroom >> students and have other classroom duties. Our school population has >> decreased by 20 % in the last 10 years and apparently the administration >> and school committee can't even consider *optimizing* the staff to offer >> additional academic services the students and parents want while lowering >> the ongoing costs of running the school. Every year, without much debate, >> the School Committee asks and gets the maximum 2.5% raise over the previous >> year and that is considered success even though our school population keeps >> going down. Our student teacher ratio is significantly lower than almost >> everyone (37% more teachers than the state average), Our MCAS scores are >> middle of the pack, our cost per student is 6K higher than almost every >> other school except for Weston and the School says basically, "we can't cut >> a thing, you don't understand, it's complicated." >> >> <Screenshot 2023-01-31 at 7.42.59 PM.png> >> ReplyForward >> >> >> On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 6:14 PM Andy Wang <andyrw...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Peter, >>> >>> Not to jump in on a conversation between you and John, but since you >>> posted publicly, I figure it would be okay. >>> >>> I wanted to point out, that in the middle school, there is a distinction >>> between the listed teachers (from the enrollment report) and sections that >>> are on John's chart. I have a son who is in 6th grade (60 in his class). >>> In the enrollment report you linked to (the 2022 Enrollment Report), it >>> indicates that there are 4 groups, what I'll call 'homerooms' each led by a >>> teacher (4 listed there). But when they go to class, he says they only >>> have 3 sections, of about 20 in each section. This seems to match the >>> chart that John included in his email, which specifies sections. I think >>> in the middle school, the teacher ratio gets a little more confusing since >>> some subject teachers teach one grade, some multiple, and also specialists >>> (who could teach multiple grades) as opposed to in the elementary school >>> where the 'homeroom' teachers, for the most part, teach all subjects to >>> their class (but also some specials here too). While I understand your >>> argument, I don't think it's quite as simple as just cutting a section. >>> >>> As a staffing side note, the town probably also doesn't want to get into >>> a situation where, say you decide to cut a section of a grade and then have >>> a teacher who teaches across the middle school grades with a < 1 FTE load. >>> To which I think the natural tendency for those teachers would be to go >>> look for other employment when they can get a full time position. So there >>> is a balance there as well. Just some food for thought. >>> >>> To a large extent, while public Lincoln Talk discussions are >>> entertaining, real change happens in the committee, which is an elected >>> position. I'll go back to the statement that if folks are unhappy with the >>> direction of the school and want some impact, the more productive course of >>> action is to run for a seat, state your opinions and views, and see if >>> there is a large enough group of folks who share that view. That's the >>> real mandate for change, otherwise, the committee really has no idea if >>> this is like 1/2 the town feels this way or it is just a select vocal >>> minority. >>> >>> - Andy >>> >>> >>> -- >> The LincolnTalk mailing list. >> To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. >> Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. >> Browse the archives at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. >> Change your subscription settings at >> https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. >> >> -- > The LincolnTalk mailing list. > To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. > Search the archives at http://lincoln.2330058.n4.nabble.com/. > Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/ > . > Change your subscription settings at > https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln. > > >
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