Officials surprised by preschool program reduction

By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — An inquiry by the Eagle Times into a proposed budget cut of the Claremont Preschool Center found that only three of the seven school board members were directly notified of the administration’s proposed position cuts.

Several Claremont School Board members reacted with surprise and initial skepticism on Sunday when a Claremont preschool teacher announced on Facebook that the district intends to reduce the preschool program by one classroom team.

“Would anyone from the school board like to provide an explanation behind cutting a preschool classroom effective Fall 2022?” Claremont preschool teacher Terri Higbee posted on “What’s Up Claremont,” a community Facebook group with more than 15,000 members.

Board Vice-Chair Heather Whitney and board member Rob Lovett sought to learn Higbee’s source of information.

“To my knowledge, this is completely untrue,” said Lovett, prior to saying he would make inquiries.

School officials confirmed on Monday that the preschool staff learned of the budget cut at a staff meeting on Friday, Jan. 14. The proposed staff reductions include one preschool teacher and one paraprofessional.

The Eagle Times also learned that three school board members, who serve as the board’s budget subcommittee, knew of these program cuts several weeks ago.

According to Claremont School Board Chair Frank Sprague, the administration gave the subcommittee members a list of proposed position cuts for the 2022-2023 school year, including at the preschool.

Sprague, a member of the budget subcommittee, said the group did not share these documents with the other four board members due to concerns about sharing sensitive information about layoffs prior to the affected employees receiving notice.

“The challenge when talking about budget numbers is that you are really talking about people,” Sprague said. “So it becomes a fine line, because it’s difficult to publicly discuss specific positions without it becoming clear which employees are being discussed.”

The budget subcommittee, a three-member board group, formed four years ago to increase the board’s involvement in the budget-crafting process. The group studies the district’s operating costs for opportunities to provide services more effectively or efficiently, through annual meetings with building principals and department heads and analysis of data and trends, such as enrollments, program usage and line-item spending averages.

Prior to the subcommittee’s formation, the district’s staffing numbers and costs had grown significantly during the last decade despite a declining student enrollment, Sprague said.

Sprague said the budget subcommittee did not meet this year with administrators from the preschool, which is actually part of the district’s special education department, as the preschool primarily serves students who are identified with special or at-risk needs.

Sprague also said that neither the school board nor the budget subcommittee directed the superintendent to make specific program or position cuts.

“We only give the superintendent a [budgetary] number to meet,” Sprague explained. “What the superintendent chooses to fund or not is beyond our purview. We can express our displeasure but we cannot direct him [what to fund].”

Historically the budget subcommittee has not shared its discussions of individual positions with the other board members, which has never raised an issue until now, Sprague said.

“It’s worked very well in the past,” Sprague said.

Sprague said that the budget subcommittee receives its budgetary direction from the board as a whole and as a rule does not decide budget increases or reductions on its own, Sprague said. However, last year the budget subcommittee requested additional cuts of approximately $584,000 that went beyond the board’s initial proposal. Sprague said last year’s budget cycle was complicated heavily because of the pandemic, which impacted the board’s meetings as well as the district’s finances. That action by the subcommittee was a one-time situation and was corrected this year.

To reduce the tax impact, the school district plans to cut eight classroom positions, for an estimated reduction of $584,000, according to Seaman.

The budget subcommittee members include Sprague and board members Michael Petrin and Nicholas Stone.

The Eagle Times attempted to reach the other board members by email for comment, including Whitney, Lovett, and fellows members Joshua Lambert and Steven Horsky. The board members were specifically asked whether they feel there needs to be improved communication between the budget subcommittee and the rest of the board.

Whitney said that she is still receiving information regarding the matter and is not ready to comment.

“To comment with specifics unknown would be irresponsible and surely lead to more miscommunication, confusion, or misinterpretation,” Whitney told the Eagle Times.

Lambert also said he is awaiting additional information before speaking on the issue.

The Eagle Times did not receive responses from Lovett or Horsky by the time of publication.

The Eagle Times also emailed Superintendent Michael Tempesta and Finance Director Richard Seaman to ask why the administration did not mention the preschool program reductions during the budget presentations on Wednesday, Jan. 5, or Tuesday, Jan. 18, but did not receive a response from either administrator by the publication deadline.

Regarding the preschool program, Whitney noted the need to correct some public misperceptions about the preschool program, which is not a universal pre-K program as some people seemed to believe.

“Our current program was never designed to [provide universal pre-K to all of Claremont’s children],” Whitney said. “Our current program was established to provide mandated services to our special needs population in that age cohort. Model students were recruited to provide an integrated educational setting for that target population.”

According to Sprague, the preschool program staff includes a student services coordinator, three teachers, and funding for nine paraeducators, though only some of those positions are currently filled. There are also several specialized service providers under contract.

Sprague said he has requested the center’s enrollment numbers but believed the enrollment at the start of the current school year was below capacity. The center has an enrollment capacity of 30 students but there must be an even ratio of students with special needs to “model students,” or students who perform at a baseline level.

Sprague said the board needs to reallocate staffing positions ahead of the district’s plan to redesign the Stevens High School schedule, which aims to increase quality instruction time in key content areas by changing from semester-long courses with 70-80 minute class periods to full-year courses with class periods of 60 minutes.

Sprague said the proposed schedule will better benefit students but will also require hiring more teachers to serve the increase in daily school periods.

reporter @eagletimes.com