While deciding to provide pay increases for teachers, the Prince William County School Board subsequently voted down a proposal to further reduce class sizes in the county at their budget work session Tuesday night.
Brentsville School Board member Gil Trenum proposed amending the Superintendent’s Proposed Budget for FY15 to include further class size reductions. The motion failed but was supported by Chairman Milt Johns and Gainesville School Board member Alyson Satterwhite.
While the Superintendent’s Proposed Budget funded reducing classes by one student in sixth grade classes across the school division, Trenum proposed including the two other grades in the superintendent’s initial plan for reducing class sizes: kindergarten and ninth grade math.
While that plan has still been called a “modest proposal,” he said that “at least it is a step forward."
Knowing that class size reduction was a priority for the community, and knowing that some on the Board of County Supervisors were looking for the School Board to fund a more aggressive plan, Trenum thought it was important that the School Board take a stand on reducing class sizes.
Trenum’s plan also asked that the school division provide an addition $260,000 or $3 per student to the schools to help them provide additional supplies for classroom teachers as teachers have complained that they are not getting enough of the supplies they need.
Occoquan School Board member Lillie Jessie questioned the class size numbers, asking if they were perhaps exaggerated on the internet. She also said she did not know if there was really a problem of lack of supplies, or it is just poor budgeting on the part of principals.
Loree Williams of the Woodbridge district said she also wondered about those figures too, and Dr. Walts said he could provide a list of class sizes for the School Board to review.
Dr. Michael Otaigbe of the Coles District said that he believed that class sizes are a problem, but that teacher compensation is a bigger priority.
Trenum differs with some School Board members, saying that he believes reducing class sizes should be the school division’s number one priority, and that as its first priority, it should be budgeted first. However, he said it is not being considered first, but rather is being considered last.
However, funding those priorities means finding additional funding. In Superintendent Steven Walts’ original class size reduction plan, the cost to reduce class sizes in those three grades was estimated to cost $3.5 million. Trenum said the School Board could look through the budget and find the necessary funds, even if it means making difficult decisions.
“We really have to look at making hard choices, and not funding things that people like whether it is specialty programs, or cash bonus for staff on anniversary dates,” Trenum said.
But, he also wants to look at cost savings by going through the budget and seeing if any savings can be found. Trenum said he still plans to do this, in cooperation with Satterwhite and a citizen committee.
“I’m not asking people to do more with less. I’m saying maybe we should look at doing less with less,” he said.
Trenum said he was “disappointed that we couldn’t fund what we said our priorities are,” noting that not only did his proposal fail, but also a second one that asked to fund just one additional grade across the division.
Ultimately, the School Board voted to fund teacher salary increases, and to only fund the reduction of one class size already included in the Superintendent’s Proposed Budget.
Teacher and student advocate, Shannon Geraghty was likewise disappointed the School Board has not made reducing class sizes a bigger priority. She helped to form the online group “Class Size Matters” along with the PWEA because she believes it is affecting all aspects of education.
Geraghty teaches A.P. (Advanced Placement) Government at Forest Park. She said she sees how large class sizes affect her A.P. students. While some people think that advanced students will not be affected by larger class sizes, she explains that the classes are open to anyone, and so she sees many students who require extra remediation “but there is just no time.”
It also affects the way she and many of her colleagues teach. Geraghty said she is always grading papers, and it is just not possible for her to add even more writing assignments, even though she believes that writing is an important part of the curriculum.
Additionally, she believes it has affected an entire generation of students who have poor writing skills and some who have fallen through the cracks at Prince William Public Schools even in terms of their reading skills.
Geraghty said this is not a western end issue; it does not just affect middle schools or high schools, but it is affecting students at schools across the county.
“Teachers all over the county are in similar straits,” she said.
But it is not a problem across all of Northern Virginia. She said her colleagues in Falls Church teach 10 fewer students.
“That’s a priority for them. They know that large class size doesn’t work,” she said.
Geraghty said she is interested in joining a citizens' budget committee. She said she has printed out the budget herself (all 250 pages of it- not on a school computers) and has found some room within the budget already on the pages where schools list their spending. She gives the example of high schools budgeting tens of thousands of dollars for conferences.
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