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Date: 6/20/2023
EASTHAMPTON – Superintendent of Schools Allison LeClair discussed the elementary census at the Mountain View School for the coming year. Mountain View School, the new building in the district, hosts pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students.
One main point of LeClair’s presentation was the need for extra support in the lower grades to compensate for learning losses suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The current classes have a lot of social emotional challenges. They’re COVID babies,” LeClair said. “They need these extra classrooms to get the support they need.”
Next year, first graders will have five regular education classrooms with an average of 17.3 students in each, down from an average of 21 students this year. The reduction in class sizes will be possible by putting first graders in a sixth room in the pre-K and kindergarten wing.
The pre-K and kindergarten wing has nine classrooms equipped with bathrooms, three for pre-K and six for kindergartners. The pre-K classrooms are full. Students with disabilities will be integrated.
There will be five classes of kindergartners, with one room used for first grade instruction. A room in that wing will house the occupational and physical therapy staff.
Every grade level has a special education classroom.
“Our special education classes are designed differently because they are separate,” LeClair said. Those rooms also have a bathroom, but also a reset space, what LeClair called, “a calming area.”
In the wing for grade 2, LeClair said, there are currently six full classrooms with 19.6 students each. Next year, class sizes will see a small increase to 20.2 students each, with five instead of six rooms full. A special education and music room are also located in that wing.
The third grade has six full classrooms this year and will have six next year. The current estimates are 19.8 students per classroom, down from an even 20. The art room and elementary library are located in that wing.
Grade 4, next year, will be almost identical to the census for this year, with five regular education classes with 19.6 students instead of 19.5 this year. Grade 5 also had five classes full, with the sixth room used for the Grade 4 overflow. The current and next year census for grade 5 are identical with 23.4 students per class.
LeClair pointed to high MCAS scores among fifth graders as evidence that larger class sizes are not having a negative effect on students. The superintendent also did not find a negative effect in other available data.
“This committee has made a very conscious effort, in the last few years, to keep class sizes small, particularly at the youngest grades,” LeClair said. “We could get an influx of students in the summer…but this is where we are now.”
LeClair concluded her presentation, after which Julie Anne Levin, director of curriculum and grants, responded to comments made by City Council members about the district’s English Language Learners program. The statement Levin presented also came from LeClair.
“Some members of the City Council challenged the fiscal year 2024 school budget due to information they received from community members about our English learners department,” Levin said. A group of parents approached City Council, who then called into question “the budget recommendation from the School Department.”
Levin said that council members made public comments about curriculum issues without soliciting further input from school administrators. She also took umbrage with how ELL students were depicted, saying it reinforced a deficit mindset about multilingual students and their families.
“Those families contribute greatly to our schools,” Levin said. “They are invested in the success of the students and are engaged.”
The information was not shared with district administrators until a public records request was made. According to Levin, school leaders share an expansive view of what a robust ELL program could look like. Bilingual students should have access to bilingual counselors and special education teachers, Levin said, and regular education teachers should have access to further multilingual training.
“All creativity and visioning of a robust program was missed when public officials began dictating what staff they have determined to be sufficient for the EL program,” Levin said. “It was a short-sighted and politically driven process.”
School officials found the information City Council members used to discuss staffing is four years old and pre-dated COVID-19. Staff increases were recently recommended for the ELL program because Levin and other school administrators knew the coronavirus pandemic would have a more profound effect on children in the ELL program. The pre-pandemic program review, however, did not recommend any staff increases.
While the tiered review process by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found shortcomings in ELL instruction in 2019, Levin said the program met all benchmarks for improvement over the last couple of years. Currently, the program is fully compliant “as a sheltered English immersion program.” Regular education teachers with ELL students are now also required to have additional training in ELL coursework.
She said two full-time teachers served 36 ELL students in several buildings, with the assistance of additional paraprofessional educators, who’s importance in the program seemed to be “lost” by the City Council critics.
“Paraeducators are an integral part of our schools and we rely on them for enhancing the learning of our students,” Levin said. The role of paraeducators was reduced to free up economic resources for special education teachers. “Due to this, next year we will have a special education teacher for each grade level.”
Levin explained that students from many backgrounds participate in the ELL program and quoted Dr. Albert Johnson Mossad, a consultant during the recent effort to implement the corrective action plan recommended by DESE.
“People are not just one thing,” Levin said, quoting Mossad. “Our practices and protocols in education often address them that way…[But] there are ways for districts and schools to work on expanding our perspectives and practices.”
Levin’s census of ELL students included two students in kindergarten, six foundational and eight transitional level students between kindergarten and Grade 4, with a total of 17 spots budgeted. A total of 14 ELL students are anticipated for grades 5 through 8, with one foundational and 11 transitional level students.