Point Reyes Light - November 30, 2000
Lagunitas trustees told to revamp A&E curriculum
By Stephen Barrett
Acting superintendent Mary Buttler encouraged Lagunitas School District trustees Tuesday to replace the faltering Academic and Enrichments program with a new educational model rather than transferring its students into the district’s Montessori elementary school or Open Classroom.
Academics and Enrichment parents came to the school board earlier this month to complain that the district’s traditional elementary classrooms were chaotic and understaffed, with only two teachers instructing roughly 40 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
At the time, several parents requested trustees to merge the Montessori and A&E programs over winter recess rather than maintaining a traditional elementary program with only two teachers – a position that did not raise much enthusiasm from the Montessori parent group or the school board.
Classrooms not so bad
After visiting the Academics and Enrichment classrooms last week, Buttler said they were much better than the chaos described by parents two weeks ago. Still, A&E enrollment is expected to drop again next year as dissatisfied parents transfer their children out of the program or remove them from Lagunitas School District.
But rather than immediately merging the A&E program into Montessori, Buttler suggested the district develop a new alternative that keeps options available for parents who do not fully embrace the educational philosophies of Montessori or the Open Classroom but also dislike A&E’s large, multi-grade classrooms.
Buttler said a new program that emphasizes math, science, and computer skills could help balance the enrollment between the three elementary school programs, and maybe even entice students from outside the district. "Let’s think about what we can do to get out ahead of the education market," she told trustees. "Let’s give a little life to a whole new choice."
Three teachers needed
Buttler said she will discuss the idea next week with A&E parents, then take it up with parents and faculty involved in the Montessori program and Open Classroom before returning to the school board again next month.
Trustee Denise Bohman said the effort to retool the district’s educational programs must include all its constituencies and not get left to the Academics and Enrichment parent group, which has exhausted itself trying to preserve a traditional elementary school curriculum in the district.
Bohman noted that parents were satisfied with the A&E program until declining enrollment forced the school board to reduce its faculty to just two teachers this school year. "A&E doesn’t work without three teachers," she said. "It’s obvious it’s not working now."
Trustee Reede Stockton said the school board will make it a priority to offer a full choice of programs as February enrollment approaches and parents start deciding which program to place their children in.
Aide position unfilled
In the meantime, trustees voted unanimously to dedicate enough money for the A&E program to hire an instructional aide for three additional hours a day for the remainder of the school year. Each program’s classrooms are entitled to one hour per day of instructional-aide time, but the A&E aide position is not currently filled.
A&E parents hired a substitute teacher at their own expense to assist in their classrooms until mid-December.
The money pledged by trustees for additional aide time comes from the School Savers fundraisers. Trustees devoted School Savers’ $5,630 exclusively to aides’ salaries on Tuesday, unless more money becomes available through a grant administered by the school site council.