CAPE GAZETI, Friday, April 5 - April 11, 1996 - 15
Cape School Board opts for no kindergarten policy changes
By Kerry Kester struction, gave a presentation at other registration date this spring, mines how many state-funded ,
The Cape Henlopen board of
Education reached a consensus on
the kindergarten registration
process during its Thursday,
March 28 meeting, opting not to
make any changes. Some mem-
bers of the community had re-
quested the board consider hold-
ing additional registration periods
on some evenings or Saturdays,
but the board decided to leave the
registration process status quo for
this year and consider changes
next year.
During the workshop meeting
on March 21, Ed Zygmonski, a
concerned parent, asked the board
to consider expanding the regis-
tration days and attempt another
marketing strategy to encourage
parents to enroll their children for
kindergarten. A lack of accurate
numbers or a means of predicting
numbers for kindergarten resulted
in severely overcrowded kinder-
garten classes at Shields Elemen-
tary School this year - a problem
that many community members
would like to see averted next
year.
Nancy Feichtl, director of in-
Cape Board OKs
site-based discipline
committee names
By Kerry Kester
The Cape Henlopen Board of
Education approved a slate of
members for site-based discipline
committees during its Thursday,
March 28 meeting. Committees
were chosen for both middle
schools and the high school.
Bob Smith, director of instruc-
tion, said the committees were an
outgrowth of House Bill 247,
which provides funding for school
discipline programs. "The middle
school and the high school Were
given the opportunity to apply for
larger sums to help out with disci-
pline," said Smith. However, as a
condition of receiving the addi-
tional grant money, districts must
form site-based committees, part
of the educational reform strategy
in Delaware.
The Cape district, which has
had a strong and active discipline
committee for a couple of years,
will not replace that committee
because of the new site-based
committees. Instead, said- Smith,
each of the building committees
will formulate recommendations
that they will-forward to the dis-
trict committee.
The site-based committees are
comprised of district employees,
parents, students and community
members. "We'll have a broader
base of input," said Smith.
"We're going to have more input
about what's working and what's
not working."
In addition to their work on pro-
moting better school climates,
Smith said, each of the site-based
committees will also be determin-
ing how to spend the grant money
Continued on page 16
the board meeting regarding the
unit count system, hiring prac.tices
and the registration process. "We
get far more parents on the first
day of registration than almost
any district around," said Nancy
Feichtl. 'What means it's well ad-
vertised." She then presented cur-
rent projections and explained the
unit count system.
Projected kindergarten enroll-
ment figures presently are as fol-
lows: Rehoboth Elementary
School - 93; Shields Elementary
School - 135, and H.O. Britting-
ham Elementary School - approxi-
mately 83.
"In the final analysis, it
wouldn't matter what the project-
ed figures would be unless it
would hit 160 regular education
students," said Zygmonski in a
later interview.
Feichtl said thatadding registra-
tion days now would provide un-
usable data. Without having data
with which to compare it, she said
she would not know how to inter-
pret it. "I would have to do it for
several years in order to know
what the pattern is." However,
she said, previous enrollment pro-
jections have been fairly accurate.
"We've called it within a margin
of error of 10 percent," she said.
At the suggestion of June Tu-
ransky, board member, the board
reached consensus on adding an-
"I'd like to see it as an opportunity
to try," said Turansky. However,
prior to confirming any details,
the board requested an estimated
cost for hiring staff for an addi-
tional registration date.
Feichtl said she guessed it
would cost the district between
$3,000 and $5,000, although she
stated that she was only guessing
at the cost. The board then decid-
ed against holding the additional
registration date. Bob Smith, di-
rector of instruction, suggested the
board consider promoting kinder-
garten registration during a sum-
mer festival for youth, and the
board agreed to try.
Turansky, showing concern that
the board was not finding a means
to avoid the overcrowding that oc-
curred this year, said she would
like to try to find a funding mech-
anism to make adjustments "for
bubbles" [unexpected population
growth]. "We need some room to
move in this count, because it's
difficult," said Turansky.
"I really think the bottom line is
to put a ceiling on class size," said
Brent Moore, board member. He
said he would support some loose-
ly structured funding that would
allow for personnel growth if
needed, rather than spend money
now on additional registration
days.
. Total district enrollment deter-
teaching units a district earns.
Generally, the district assigns the
approximate number of teaching
units that each building earns.
Building principals determine
how to use those units, said Fe-
ichtl. They must, however, staff
all teaching positions from the to-
tal number of units they receive,
including those who teach special
education, art, physical education,
etc.
All districts in the state also
earn Academic Excellence Units.
The state uses a different formula
to calculate the number of those
units. Each district may opt to use
those units for staffing, but they
may also take a cash option,
which has few restrictions on how
the money is used.
The Cape Henlopen School Dis-
trict uses only a few of its Acade-
mic Excellence Units for staffing,
and the positions it does fund with
that money are special teachers
such as career counselors, English
as Second Language teachers, etc.
The board adopted a policy sev-
eral years ago that prohibits an-
other source of funding - local
funds - from being used to hire
teachers. Butch Archer opposed
making any funding changes, stat-
ing that it would lead the district
toward an unstable budget.
"You're courting disaster on the
financial side," said Archer.
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