Officials: Faculty In Good Spirits Despite Larger Classes, Cut Programs

With the 2010-2011 school year having started just one week ago, Bridgewater-Raritan School District Superintendent Michael Schilder said Tuesday that, thus far, everything has been going well, despite the obvious notice of the toll the budget reductions have taken on classes.

"We have seen the impact of the budget reductions at the beginning of the year," Schilder said during Tuesday's Board of Education meeting.

With the reduction of 65 teachers, Schilder said, class sizes have increased, mainly for grades five through 12. In the younger classes, he said, the sizes are in the low 20s this year, as opposed to the high teens last year.

But the older grades, Schilder said, are feeling the pain of the larger class sizes.

"Many classes are at 28 plus people," he said. "Some are even 30 plus. That's more than we've ever had in classes."

Aside from the class size changes, Schilder said the schools are dealing with lost school-wide enrichment, a loss of clubs in the intermediate school, the elimination of elementary grade Spanish and the loss of middle school intramural sports.

Schilder said some parents have been asking specifically about the Spanish program, and he has to always remind them that the program was eliminated because of budget cuts.

Some high school students are also having scheduling issues, as classes have been changed because of those that were eliminated in the budget cuts. Schilder said it will all get worked out soon.

In addition, Schilder said, the district has been gathering pay to play fees at the high school, with $100 for each child participating in a sport, and $25 to participate in several clubs, including the newspaper club, yearbook and others.

But, Schilder said, he was expecting more complaints concerning those payments.

"There are not as many complaints as I would have expected," he said. "But I'm sure there's been hardships for some."

Finally, Schilder said, even the administration is noting the difficulties following the loss of five administrative positions.

"It is more work for the administrators, and people to cover for," he said. "Will it be handled? Absolutely."

The other biggest issue, Schilder said, has been transportation, which is something that comes up at the beginning of most school years. There are usually three concerns from parents, he said, namely safety, bus routes and stop changes.

Basically, Schilder said, parents discuss safety issues with bus pickups, concerns about the buses arriving earlier or later than scheduled and questions about possible changes for bus pick-ups because of convenience or other issues.

From there, Schilder said, the requests are prioritized, with safety being number one.

As for the requests for pick-up changes, Schilder said, the district normally puts a two-week wait on them.

"We have implemented a waiting period, so by Sept. 27 we should have any adjustments that will need to be made," he said. "We want to reserve time to make the safety and bus route changes first."

Sometimes, Schilder said, parents express frustration, thinking that the bus route changes should be easy to make. But, he said, to change one stop, the district has to change others as well to account for various pick-ups and school times.

Most of these change requests, Schilder said, are to accommodate after school child care.

"It takes time to implement those changes," he said.

For the most part, Schilder said, staff and students are doing well in the beginning of school, despite some hiccups along the way.

"I've spoken with all the faculty," he said. "People are in good spirits, and things are going well."