Congratulations families and staff of Paul Ecke Central School on another school year. It is hard to believe this is my family's sixth year at the school. So many great friends made, lessons learned, and our school community continues to grow. Congratulations, too, to our friends in sixth grade who are moving on to middle school.
As a school teacher, I look forward to some weeks of fun and relaxation with the family before even beginning to contemplate the next school year. However, like you, I received the email from Adriana Chavarin Friday about some changes at PEC next year that are important enough to get me thinking about next year right now.
Principal Letter
"Dear PEC Families,
The 2010-11 school year has come to an end! Over the last couple of weeks the PEC staff has been hard at work preparing for the 2011-12 school year. As you may be aware, EUSD is facing a budget shortfall of $3 million which has translated into an increase in class sizes in kinder through third grade to 23 students per class. Additionally, contracts were not renewed for temporary contract teachers. At PEC, we have also experienced a slight drop in enrollment for the upcoming school year. Together, the class size increase, the termination of temporary contracts and the drop in enrollment will cause a loss of staff at PEC in the next school year. I am sorry to report that Ms. Bittar and Ms. Slade will be leaving PEC at the conclusion of this school year. Both teachers have contributed greatly to the learning program at PEC. Their dedication to the PEC students, staff and parents is commendable.
All of these changes have forced us to look closely at our enrollment and staffing to determine how to best serve the learning needs of our PEC students. Instead of creating solo combo classes that most schools try to avoid, we are adopting a multi-age class approach. As a staff we feel that a multi-age approach will allow the teachers to support one another and the students more effectively. The research on multi-age classes also finds that teacher collaboration and parent involvement are key to the success of multi-age classes. For this reason, we are planning on providing you with multiple opportunities to learn more about the instructional approach and curriculum we are adopting, and to answer any questions you may have about the multi-age class philosophy. Over the summer I will be providing the multi-age teachers with planning days and will be meeting with them in early August to finalize instructional plans. We are excited about instituting the multi-age approach and look forward to collaborating with you in the upcoming year. If you would like to read more about the multi-age approach, please visit the following website: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/instrctn/in500.htm
I want to thank you for all of your support during this academic year. Have a great summer and I will see you on August 15 for the first day of school.
Sincerely, Adriana Chavarin"
We're still neck deep in budget woes, and concessions continue to be required. However, I am very wary of multi-age classrooms. Having observed colleagues teach combination classes over the years, and having had one of our kids in one at PEC, I have only seen one instance where I felt the combination worked, and in that model, the same students are with the same teachers for two years in first and second grade. This proposed multi age classroom is not a project to be undertaken lightly, and I'm not sure if any teacher is requesting to teach a multi-age classroom and learn how to do it in the eight weeks of summer. I would like to find out more, however, before making final judgements. Update: Administration is meeting Monday to setup a time for an informational meeting for the PEC community. Check beck in to the EUSD Observer for updates on when that will be taking place.
