This is the second in a series of articles about budgetary needs in the Pittsfield Public Schools. The first is here; the final article, on instruction and supplies, will run this weekend.

 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Williams Elementary School Principal Lisa Buchinski kept her presentation to the School Committee fairly short on Wednesday, knowing she needed to rush back to the school to fill a supervisory role.

 

The School Committee heard from all 12 principals Wednesday about their wants in the upcoming budget during the daylong session. Buchinski was short staffed because of absences that day and couldn't find a substitute. She put one of the paraprofessional supervisors in a classroom and then took the supervisory role herself. 

 

"For instance today, we are short staffed and I am taking the role of a supervisory paraprofessional when I get back," Buchinski said. "There would be full use with a permanent substitute [teacher]." 

 

Buchinski joined the chorus of principals asking for a permanent substitute teacher for their schools. Crosby Elementary Principal Donna Baker said there was a need for 291 substitutes last month but she could only get 209 shifts covered, a rate of 71 percent. In November, she filled 80 percent of her needs, in October 72 percent, and 71 percent in September. Like Buchinski, Baker asked for one full-time substitute.

 

"Reinstating the permanent subs would take an extremely heavy load off of a lot of people," Taconic Principal John Vosburgh said.

 

Vosburgh said the high school once had four permanent substitutes. Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kristen Behnke said when there was a greater pool of available subs in the area, the department did away with the permanent position. However, the pool is now shallow and even by raising the rates, "we are not able to find subs."

 

For Vosburgh, who is asking for two subs, that means pulling staff members from other areas. The front greeter or hallway monitoring goes to the wayside to cover the rooms.

 

"Having the permanent subs, when I first started we had four, we had three in our academic area and one for our CTE. Those were versed in a number of different areas." Vosburgh said. "We have a lot of teachers who are pulled out for legitimate reasons."

 

He added that a permanent substitute isn't just knowledgeable in a multitude of subjects, but is also more effective because the students get to know the teacher, providing consistency.

 

"Mr. Vosburgh makes a good point that they are people who know the building," School Committee Chairwoman Katherine Yon said.

 

The principal said at any given time there could be four to six teachers going to a workshop, others on medical leaves, and, in one year, he had six staff members on maternity leave — though he doesn't expect that to happen again. 

 

Instead of doing teacher observations and coaching the staff, Capeless Principal Candy Jezewski said she finds herself serving as the school's substitute at times. 

 

"That substitute teacher is also a pipeline for a teaching position for us," added Egremont Principal Judy Rush in adding to the call for full-time substitutes.

 

Superintendent Jason McCandless and School Committee member Anthony Riello cautioned the principals that if the School Committee brings the positions back, they don't want to see the substitutes being used in other ways.

 

"If this is a pathway that we go down, we will ask our principals to be very clear in 'is this what you want or do you want a clerical person,' " McCandless said.

 

Mayor Linda Tyer noted that in hiring permanent substitutes, benefits and pension plans are added to the cost. In total, the principals asked for the full-time equivalent of 16 permanent substitutes, one for each of the elementary schools and two in each of the middle and high schools.

 

"The permanent subs is clearly an issue we've heard from every principal today," Tyer said.

 

But is not just substitutes the principals want. Each school had a number of other positions. 

 

Besides two permanent substitutes to cover an average of five absences a day, PHS Principal Matthew Bishop is asking for the full-time equivalent of 10.2 positions. The majority of those jobs would be five paraprofessionals. 

 

"The consistent ask from our teachers year in and year out is 'we need time,' " Bishop said, and the paraprofessionals can take on the jobs of monitoring hallways, supervisory jobs, and manning doorways so the teachers have more time to collaborate. 

 

He also asked for an additional vice principal. 

 

"We have over 100 staff that need to be evaluated every year ... It's really become difficult to do everything with myself, the vice principal and the dean of students," Bishop said. 

 

"I can do it and get it done but to do it well and put the time and effort into it to have teachers grow, this system is pretty extensive."

 

He is also asking for a math specialist, a reading specials — both aimed to improve the school's remediation work with students falling behind — a case manager for special education students, and bumping the physics' specialist from .8 to full time. He'd also like to see the return of a career center, which was grant funded and cut when the money ended.

 

Vosburgh, too, asked for the career center.

 

"It has been a huge asset. It is basically like having a fifth guidance counselor," Vosburgh said, adding that the career counselor worked "heavily" with the vocational students to teach resume writing and crafting maps to college and careers for students.

 

Herberg Middle School Principal Gina Coleman is asking for two special education teaching positions cut in last year's budget to be reinstated. She said there are a total of 120 students in the school on individualized education plans with nine special education staff members. The staffing levels leave one staff member handling two grades, she said.

 

"They are no longer co-instructing so they are solely taking care of this much larger caseload than they've ever had before," Coleman said. "We feel that by law we have to provide students on IEPs with the best education we possibly can." 

 

She is also asking for an art teacher, a stipend for team leaders working on the district and school improvement plans, and would like to have a full-time librarian, a position that is currently split with Reid Middle School. 

 

Reid's Principal Linda Whitacre is also asking for two special education teachers because "25 percent of our student population is special education." She is also looking for a full-time teacher to implement the Wilson program, a team leader to represent the specialist unit on the school improvement plan process, an increase in custodial hours, a .4 orchestra teacher teacher and .1 of an art teacher.

 

Whitacre also wants two full-time equivalency positions to tackle behavioral issues. She wants one registered behavioral technician to focus on data collecting and the planning and intervention to work with children with behavioral issues and a mediation coordinator to solve student conflicts.

 

"It really benefits the whole school," Whitacre said, saying that when students misbehave it causes disruption in the classrooms.

 

Discipline is an issue for Allendale Elementary School Principal Brenda Kelley, who is asking for a dean of students and a registered behavior technician. She said she has one behavior technician who spends five to six hours a week per student but the caseload of 14 students is beyond what she can handle.

 

"I spend the majority of my time working on disciplinary issues," she said. 

 

Riello said the there are "serious issues" with some of the students there and he wants to find a way to bring somebody onboard to finish out this year.

 

"They really need some help. I would certainly support a dean of students," he said. "I don't see this problem going away at the end of this year. Something needs to be done at Allendale for the rest of the year."

 

Tyer questioned if the district is working with those implementing the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative grant recently announced. McCandless responded that he has spoke with the leaders of the program about implementing a citywide program from K-12 to prevent the younger students from becoming the at-risk teenagers of the future.

 

"If we are strategic with all of these resources, we can have a greater impact," the mayor said.

 

Kelley is also asking for an academic interventionist and to extend the secretary's hours. She was joined by the principals of Egremont, Conte Community School, Williams and Capeless is requesting the hours be expanded from 8:20 to 3:20 by a half hour to 8 to 3:30.

 

"Bottom line, I need my office to be covered," Buchinski said.

 

Buchinski is also asking for three full-time equivalent for special education paraprofessionals and to move the part-time mathematics coach to a full-time position.

 

Stearns Elementary Principal Aaron Dean is also looking for help in math. He is asking for a mathematics interventionist to complement the half-time math coach at the school. 

 

"We put a lot into bolstering the reading side of things," Dean said. "I do see a need in math for intervention. It would just be a natural addition."

 

Morningside Principal Jennifer Stokes is asking for five full-time equivalencies as well as the permanent substitute. She would like an academic vice principal — because the community coordinator spends most of the day focused on behavioral issues — a special education teacher to work with the 93 students on IEPS and those at-risk for falling behind, a caseworker to match families with community resources such as heating assistance, and two paraprofessionals.

 

"We have one paraprofessional per two classrooms and we're finding it is not enough," she said of the third, fourth, and fifth grades. 

 

Conte Principal Kerry Light would also like an academic vice principal. She set a personal goal of increasing her observations but she is finding it difficult to find the time. She wants someone to focus solely on coaching the teachers.

 

"For teachers to grow, there needs to be that consistency," Light said. 

 

Light is also asking for a second grade teacher to add a class, three paraprofessionals, and to have paid parents help during lunch duty.

 

Jezewski says Capeless could use an academic interventionist to replace the math coach, a position eliminated last year, one paraprofessional, and a .6 physical education and health nutrition teacher to replace the library class with physical education.

 

Baker said she's like to add a general education teacher at Crosby to handle an increased enrollment. She said two fifth-grade classes are exiting but being replaced with three classes coming in.

 

"Now the numbers have caught up to us again so we are looking to add a general education teacher for the enrollment increase," Baker said.

 

She would also like four paraprofessionals, a .2 increase for the school psychologist to work an extra day, and a .5 English Language Learner teacher. She said the ELL position was reduced when enrollment in the program dropped to nine students but since then, the numbers have doubled to 18.

 

Baker also said Crosby has put a focus on moving students out of requiring therapeutic support and has ended the services at grade 3. However, she sees many students leaving Crosby to go to Morningside to continue receive those services after the third grade. She hopes to bump the 1.5 full-time equivalent to a 2 to keep the students in her school.

 

At Egremont, Rush is asking for a preschool teacher, a preschool paraprofessional, a .5 increase in ELL teacher, three instructional paraprofessionals, and to add 15 additional minutes for the four kindergarten paraprofessionals - having them start work at 8:30 instead of 8:45.

 

"It was just always a little odd but never presented a problem until we started to provide free breakfast," Rush said.

 

Wednesday's session addressed a number of budgetary issues. In the first part of these series of stories, iBerkshires outlined what the principals' asked for regarding building repairs. In the next, we'll focus on what they asked for regarding supplies, professional development, and security.