Committee reduces kindergarten sections for next year
Declining enrollment is a topic that the School Committee has discussed for several years. Now the issue may have reached a turning point.
Projections indicate that about 44 kindergarten students will enter Harvard schools next fall, down from 60 in recent years. Given those numbers, interim Superintendent Joe Connelly suggested that the committee might want to budget for just three kindergarten sections next year instead of the current four. The committee agreed and voted unanimously to do so.
Harvard’s class-size policy calls for 15 to 18 students in each kindergarten classroom. So even if several more children than expected turn up between now and September 2014, three sections should still be within the guidelines.
Kindergarten enrollment projections for 2014 are based on births recorded in Harvard during 2009. Historically, about twice as many kids arrive for kindergarten as were born here five years before. The additional numbers represent families who moved to town in the intervening years.
The School Committee is working on next year’s budget, and Connelly noted that cutting one kindergarten position would reduce the salary line by about $57,000. The money could allow the committee to fund two top priorities on the wish list–adding more health-and-wellness classes at Bromfield and upgrading a library position at Hildreth Elementary School, Connelly said.
However, Finance Director Lorraine Leonard pointed out that the Finance Committee had called for a level-service budget. “Level service” would allow keeping four kindergarten sections, she explained, but would not permit using savings in one area to upgrade services in other areas.
Connelly and the committee members acknowledged that any such changes would have to receive the Finance Committee’s approval.
Plans advance on Pond Road parking lot
According to a tentative schedule presented by Superintendent Connelly, the engineering plan for the parking lot will be completed by early January, 2014. David Ross Associates is the engineering firm for the project. Later in January, the project will be presented to the Conservation Commission because of the lot’s proximity to Bare Hill Pond and wetlands. Construction is expected to take place between June 15 and August 15, 2014.
Committee member Keith Cheveralls said that the Parks and Recreation Commission had presented a plan to Capital Committee to enlarge the boat-trailer parking area on Pond Road, asking for funds to be voted on at Annual Town Meeting next spring. Cheveralls noted that the two paving projects would have to be coordinated. He asked if Parks and Rec could have access to funds, if approved, soon enough to finish their project before June 15. It would be “mayhem at the pond again” if both parking areas were under construction at the same time, he said.
Finance Director Leonard said it all depended on the wording of the warrant article whether Parks and Rec could spend the money before a new fiscal year began in July.
