The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District is expected to consider a motion to revoke the elementary school restructuring plan and implement a multi-age instruction plan instead at its off-cycle Saturday meeting, according to the meeting’s agenda.
The School Board directed School District staff to make a budget plan for the alternative multi-age primary classrooms, a model in which multiple grades are taught in the same classroom, at its March 12 meeting.
The School Board also directed staff to model the plan with one vice principal and one music teacher split between Fawn Mountain Elementary and Point Higgins Elementary, a floating district librarian, cuts to unnecessary staff travel and a $500,000 insurance write-off of the district’s health care debt to the borough. It passed 4-3 with School Board members Jordan Tabb, Tom Heutte and former School Board President Michelle O’Brien voting no.
The alternative multi-age plan was initially presented for discussion at the March 26 meeting, after which School District staff planned to come back with more information for the School Board to consider.
A presentation and paper discussing the cost-savings effects of the multi-age classroom plan as well as an analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed models is attached to the agenda on the School Board website at https://schoolboard.kgbsd.org/BoardMeeting. The documents are also posted on the School District’s budget website at https://www.kgbsd.org/en-US/budget-information-e400dfe1 under “Multi-Age - Specialization PowerPoint Version 2” and “Paper on the Benefits/Challenges of School Programming Choices.”
The School District budget is due to the borough by May 1 for its approval. The School Board must vote in favor of it twice before it can be sent to the borough.
The only other School Board meeting currently scheduled before May 1 is a regular meeting on April 23.
THE MODELS
The PowerPoint attached to the agenda and found on the School District website provides an overview of both the original and highly contested specialization, or restructuring, plan and the new multi-age classroom plan.
Annotations found on some presentation slides indicate that salaries were estimated by averaging current salaries and are subject to change based on new salary data. It also is noted that enrollment numbers were estimated using the current school year’s population and could change come fall enrollment.
The slideshow also shows that the multi-age plan was initially drafted to include a $500,000 payoff of the district’s health care debt to the borough but that the Assembly was set to consider an increase to the in-kind debt repayment at its April 7 meeting.
On Monday, the Borough Assembly directed borough staff to draft a budget that included a $1.3 million health care debt write off. School District Business Manager Daniel Schuler was unable to be reached by presstime for comment on what that means for the School District going forward.
The PowerPoint, found on the School District budget website, shows that the multi-age classroom model could eliminate a total of 17 teaching positions, five of which would be at the elementary level and another five at the secondary level as well as one music teacher position and one library position; one vice principal; and one paraprofessional. The district also anticipates receiving a $100,000 special education services grant.
Because of the proposed cuts and anticipated grant, the School District expects that the multi-age classroom model could save $2.55 million.
One chart provided in the presentation lists the anticipated number of students by grade level from kindergarten through sixth. Another chart shows the number of students in each combined grade and the number of recommended staff.
The specialization plan, which was introduced in December and has been the subject of numerous fiery public comments at School Board meetings and online, would move kindergarten through third grade to Point Higgins Elementary and Fawn Mountain Elementary and fourth through sixth grade to Houghtaling Elementary.
According to the presentation prepared for Saturday’s School Board meeting, under specialization, the School District could save almost $2.45 million by cutting eight elementary teachers; one special education teacher; about three and a half secondary teachers, and 12 paraprofessionals.
This plan also includes a $100,000 special education services grant.
BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
A paper attached to the agenda and uploaded on the School District’s budget website cites a variety of sources and presents the potential benefits and drawbacks of multi-age classrooms and specialized grade-specific schools as well as potential staff training considerations.
The paper shows that benefits of multi-age classrooms include collaboration, individualized learning, flexibility, and peer mentorship.
However, the paper indicates that multi-age classrooms can make it more difficult to plan curriculum and manage classrooms, and would increase teacher workload.
The paper also shows that the benefits of kindergarten-through-third grade schools and fourth-through-sixth grade schools include targeted and age-appropriate learning environments that create “a strong foundation for academic success and emotional well-being.”
The paper states there are long-term benefits associated with this model as well, such as improved academic gains, smoother transitions and stronger family-school partnerships.
But the paper also shows that this model might increase the number of school transitions students make and increase the difficulty of aligning curriculum between schools, among other issues, such as transportation difficulties and reduced sense of community.
The School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly Chambers located in the White Cliff building at 1900 First Ave. It also can be streamed on the borough website at www.kgbak.us.