K-6 Schools To Lose Classroom Teacher

Freeman-Centennial School is losing one regular-education classroom teacher and the elementary school district is los­ing the full-time equivalent of 3.4 special education teachers next year, Superin­tendent Claire Jackson announced this week. The school district will also lose one reading tutor.

H. Olive Day School (which serves kindergarten through second grade) won’t have event the half-time assistant principal it had this past school year. Instead, Freeman-Centennial School (which serves grades 3 through 6) will have an administrator who spends half the time as assistant principal and half the time overseeing the school district’s special education program.

The original school budget proposed this past spring called for eliminating a classroom teacher at Freeman-Centen­nial because of a decrease in enrollment. But the new budget also eliminates an­other teacher, which will increase class size. The previous superintendent, Don LeClerc, had predicted that the school district could avoid losing teachers even if an operating budget override of Propo­sition

2 1/2 failed. But parents pushed back against a package of significantuser fee increases, persuading the School Committee’s Budget Subcommittee that the fee increases should be less than ini­tially proposed.

The Norfolk School Committee ap­proved Jackson’s budget recommenda­tions this past Wednesday on a 3-2 vote.

Jackson said she tried to avoid mak­ing changes that would increase class size, and only reluctantly eliminated the single teaching position. “So the reductions have been made with a great deal of thought to the place that I value most, which is the size of the classrooms. And I wish I didn’t have to reduce the one at the Freeman-Centen­nial,” Jackson said during the committee meeting Wednesday. While LeClerc had talked about the possibility of eliminating several read­ing tutors if necessary, Jackson decided to eliminate only one. She said she wants to examine the school district’s reading program more closely before deciding how to proceed.

“Sometimes a very rich reading pro­gram eliminates the need for special education services,” Jackson said. “… I didn’t want to touch that yet.”

School Committee members this past spring asked the teachers union to make wage concessions to try to prevent cuts in educational services. The teachers con­tract

has salary increases in place that the teachers are entitled to, but School Committee members had hoped teach­ers

might agree to two unpaid furlough days or make other concessions.

Shawn Dooley, chairman of the Nor­folk School Committee, announced late last month that the two sides could not come to an agreement.

Ellen Horton, president of the Nor­folk Teachers Association, said during the School Committee meeting this past Wednesday that the teachers union en­gaged in discussions with the School Committee over salary concessions, though she did not get into details. “We apparently could not come to any agreement, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t willing to negotiate, and we weren’t willing to offer to help close the gap,” Horton said.