Hearing held on grade merger

LITCHFIELD >> Warren parents met with the Region 6 Board of Education Thursday night in a public hearing to dispute the merged first and second grade classrooms that will be instituted at Warren School next year.

The multi-age class would have 18 total students: 10 first graders and eight second graders. It is the first of its kind in Warren School’s history and would be taught by Mary Ellen Birdsall, who most recently taught a multi-grade classroom at James Morris School last year.

“We’ve heard the concerns of

the Warren parents, we’ve listened and will work to improve the communication and to coordinate with parents,” Superintendent Edward Drapp said.

Birdsall will be present at a meeting to address parent concerns on August 1.

Residents from Warren and the surrounding towns had two minutes to speak their minds about the two big issues: the class itself and what they stated to be a lack of communication by the district.

John Daudelin, who has lived in Warren for the past five years, will have a daughter in first grade next year. He said that the small classes give the district a person touch.

“To kind of take that personal touch out of the classroom, especially with the lack of communication and explanation that everybody’s really been looking for,” Daudelin said. “That hits where our hearts are, which is our kids.”

Drapp responded to parent outcry, especially on the subject of communication. Drapp said he assumes responsibility for that.

“We can certainly do a better job communicating with parents and will do a better job communicating with parents,” Drapp said.

Board members discussed the possibility of adding a student teacher to help lessen the load on Birdsall and also about possibly forming a committee to look at issues regarding multi-grade classes. The attorney on hand, who moderated the hearing, cut these talks short, however, given that they were not agenda items.

“No options have been ruled out and certainly on the face of it I have no objection to that,” Drapp said to these ideas.

The board also provided those in attendance with a printout of slides describing the enrollment issues that they are facing, which is the reason for this multi-grade class, moreso than the fiscal reasons.

“If enrollment had stayed the same as it had in 2005 and 2006 then we wouldn’t be having this conversation about low enrollment,” Drapp said. He said that declining enrollment is not something that is going to happen, it’s something that is happening.

According to the information presented by the board, there has been a 28 percent decrease in kindergarten through elementary school students in the past six years, which was a decrease of 144 students.

The merged first and second grade class at James Mor- ris School was taught by Birdsall and two other teachers.

“The results from James Morris were encouraging,” Drapp said. Certainly two years does not establish a trend, he said, but there were no negative impacts of the program.

Kit Lundberg, whose daughter is entering the first grade, and other parents circulated a petition for this hearing and received over the necessary 50 signatures, forcing the board to hold the public hearing. Lundberg recently created a second petition online using Moveon.org, disputing a class size policy passed in May that was the precursor to the multigrade class at Warren. A physical petition has also been circulated.

Policy 6151, adopted May 8, puts class sizes for grades kindergarten through sixth into designated ranges of ‘low,’ ‘goal’ and ‘high.’ When a class size falls below the ‘low’ end of the range, the policy mandates that the district give parents two options: “either sending their students to another elementary school within the district or consolidating the class with another one either above or below it.”

As of Thursday night the online petition had 59 signatures, 53 from Warren, Goshen and Morris. Only registered voters from the three towns can take part in the petition, making the other six signatures, one of which was from Morris, Georgia, invalid.

The petition reads: “Region 6 Board of Education has asked us to accept a blended or Multi age class in 1st and 2nd grade Warren School. We feel that each class should have their own teacher. They have also made sweeping changes to school policy and class sizes with out any public meetings or public support.”