Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
In a second special meeting Monday night on the subject of classroom crowding, the Palouse school board voted to hire another half-time teacher for the elementary school.
The teacher will work with the combined second and third grade classroom, which has swelled to 31 kids.
The added afternoon teacher comes after the school hired a half-time morning teacher for the second-third grade room Sept. 22.
With the new teacher, the two grades will now be split all day, except for the enrichment classes of music, P.E. and library art.
The district’s general fund will cover the $12,275 to hire the new staff member.
Palouse superintendent Bev Fox opened Monday’s meeting by going over how much additional cost it would require to have one teacher per grade level at the school.
Palouse district business manager Frankie Swinney noted that state funds are based on enrollment per grade. For example, for Palouse’s kindergarten, the school receives state funds for one fourth of a Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) teacher. Because there are 11 kids at half-time, that comes to 5.5 kids in the state’s funding system.
Swinney said the total cost to have one teacher for each grade in Palouse, including a counselor, a librarian and a P.E. teacher, would be $169,594 more than what had been budgeted this year.
None of the grades in Palouse have enough students to qualify for funding a full-time teacher. The largest class has 18 students.
The board in September committed to $19,000 to add the half-time morning teacher for the second-third grade. Adding another half-timer in the afternoon has added “$31,000 that we didn’t budget for,” Fox said.
“Our enrollment seems to be more transitioning than ever before,” Fox added.
“What it comes down to for us, is that we don’t want our teachers replaced by para-eds,” said Brenda Cook, the mother of a third-grader at Palouse.
Shaiann Collier, another mother of a third-grader, added to this sentiment.
“I feel like if things don’t get done, I need to look at other avenues,” said Collier. She said communication is poor between teachers and parents.
Fox responded by saying that these are individual conversations to have between a parent and teacher. Fox said she would be glad to sit in on meetings such as these.
Cook said she is not blaming either side, but “a lot of parents don’t check in because they don’t hear anything from the teachers.”
“Just because there might be a single (class) to a classroom doesn’t mean communication is going to be perfect,” Fox noted.
Chris Cook, a new board member, noted teachers need to take the lead on communication since they are the experts.
After another person present said he was hearing “meaningless drivel,” and that Collier’s question was not answered, Board President Mike Dymkoski advised the attendee to show a little more respect.
“You’re not going to cherry pick from the audience,” he said.
Fox made an attempt to answer the question again.
“We have kids that are not at grade level and we are specifically addressing that. Very specifically,” Fox said.
“It’s apparent that it would be good to expand staff, but we have no sustainable source of funds to do it,” said Dymkoski. “It’s frustrating to see parents choose to leave the district and not be able to satisfy them.”
Brenda Cook asked about what comes next.
“Next year there may be 34, 35 kids in a classroom,” she said. “I feel like the communication isn’t great because there’s too many kids in the class. In combination classes (of that size), how do you keep track of every kid?”
Dymkoski expressed his appreciation for Cook and Collier bringing up these concerns, and confirmed that he, Fox and the board are listening.
“You certainly have this district’s ear,” he said.
The new half-time teacher will be hired in the coming weeks.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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