New state mandates up town's ante on education
Published on May 20th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - This is the second of a three part series on the rising cost of public education in Stoneham.
Much attention has been given to the state's Time and Learning mandates which were established in the Educational Reform Act of 1993 and will be enforced in the upcoming school year.
Some legislators and parents have heralded these "upgrades" in education and believe that students will improve greatly under the increased standards. Educators and school administrators, however, have been grappling with the financial constraints which have been placed on their school departments and, in many instances, have been the cause of significant cuts.
The Stoneham School Department has had a tougher time dealing with the increased standards than most. According to the most recent data from Acting Superintendent Robert Barbarisi and from discussions held by the School Committee, eight new teachers will have to be hired to meet the state requirements; four at the High School and another four at the Middle School.
According to High School Principal Thomas Ryan, the last few years have forced his and other schools to step up their staffing in order to meet the state's mandates on classroom time.
"Most schools meet the letter of the law (now)," he explained. "For us, that's our plan for next year.
"It's a real financial problem, but I think it's a real positive educational program."
At the High School in the 1998-99 school year, the students will be expected to spend 990 hours inside the classroom and will be taught in six majors.
Classroom time has been increased from the seven 45 minute periods students attended in 1995 to four 98 minute periods and one 49 minute period this year.
"I think this, by and large, is a positive step," Ryan explained. "The hard part about it all is that school budgets haven't increased. It's hard for towns to meet these increased mandates when they don't get any extra money (from the state)."
This problem has been cited by many educators and administrators in the state who feel that increased mandates warrant increased funding.
Middle School Principal James Andreottola has been feeling the heat from the threat of major cuts at his school.
The most recent proposal by Barbarisi cites Middle School world language, technology and extra curricular activities as areas of emphasis in the budget cutting process.
"I think (the new mandates are) good," Andreottola said. "But, in doing that, I need funding because, if you're going to raise the educational hours, you're going to need the money to pay for the extra staffing."
Andreottola said that these cuts would be devastating for the Middle School and would put the students at a disadvantage with other towns and with world language testing which may be implemented by the state in the future.
"I hope to be able to maintain this level (of education), but if staff drops, there's really not much that can be done," he said.
Andreottola said that his school will try to meet with the 990 hour requirement. This is not a necessity, however, since the state allows middle schools to choose between meeting elementary school standards (900 class hours) or high school class hours (990).
In the current school year, students are expected to attend 993 hours, he said, which is an aggressive goal for next year.
"I'm reluctant to (go below 990 hours) because I feel that that would lower the bar," Andreottola said. "I don't want to do that. The curriculum should be demanding for the students. They need to be challenged at this age."
The one change which he said he would fight tooth and nail against is a return to a junior high school model of education.
This model was phased out in past years and is now believed to be detrimental to students learning, Andreottola explained.
"I absolutely will not support returning to that model," he said. "It's anachronistic in 1998. We've invested a large number of professional development hours for research on the middle school education model.
"It flies in the face of all the research in adolescent development. It would be a dramatic step backward."
Unlike the junior high school model of education which feeds into individual accomplishments and separated learning programs, middle schools encourage teamwork and shared learning.
Unfortunately, this style of teaching is more costly due to the necessity of teaching "teams" which are composed of four educators.
The School Committee had discussed a return to the junior high school model to cut costs, but now appear to have backed off on the suggestion.
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