As Española School District officials proceed with the budget process for next fiscal year, one principal is asking them not to cut his school’s faculty.
Fairview Elementary Principal Roberto Archuleta addressed Board members, at a March 25 Board meeting, to convince them not to remove one first grade teacher position from his school.
“What I am asking is that you let me keep my three first grade teachers,” Archuleta said. “Each will have an average of 15 students per class. This will allow me to grow in first grade numbers and if the need is greater in kinder or in an upper grade, it will allow me movement of staff to an upper grade.”
According to a preliminary personnel proposal for next school year, released March 25, District administrators plan to decrease the total number of teachers at Fairview, a K-6 school, from 16 to 15.
They plan to have two first-grade teachers, instead of three, next fiscal year. For each of all the other grade levels, administrators plan to have two teachers, except for second grade.
They plan to have three second-grade teachers, as they project having 60 second-grade students next school year, while there might be about 40 to 47 students in each of the other grade levels.
Administrators project having a total of 324 students enrolled at Fairview next school year, the preliminary personnel proposal states.
Because they expect to have 45 first-graders next school year, if administrators subtract one teacher from the grade level, there will be an average of 22.5 students in each class. Archuleta said this will slightly exceed the state’s maximum allowable number of students in a class in the first through third grades, which is 22.
“By limiting me to two teachers in the first (grade), you are already placing each teacher with 22 and 23 students, which
already meets or exceeds the state standard size,” Archuleta said. “This is not leaving me any room for growth in the first grade.”
Archuleta said he’s also worried that it will be difficult to hire another teacher at Fairview in the future.
“When you lose a teacher, it’s very difficult to get another teacher,” he said.
Associate Superintendent Myra Martinez suggested if the school desperately needs another first grade teacher, Archuleta can use one of the three educational assistants currently employed at Fairview.
But Board members were more sympathetic to Archuleta.
Board Vice President Lucas Fresquez said with the renovation of Fairview, which has been going on since last year, he expects to see an increase in student population. Therefore, cutting the faculty is not a good move.
“We’re going to get a spike,” Fresquez said. “We have a new school coming in. We might even need two more teachers, potentially. We’re going to get a lot of kids going back to that school. Just looking at the math, right now, that school has the biggest teacher-per-student ratio, besides Sombrillo (Elementary).”
The first phase of construction of a new Fairview Elementary wrapped up in February and the second phase is scheduled to be completed Aug. 14, before the start of next school year.
Board member Yolanda Salazar agreed, “They should be prepared.”
Board President Pablo Lujan said with the new school, officials should help Fairview improve its state grade. Last year, the school was graded a B by the state Public Education Department.
“We need to get all resources available to the failing schools,” he said. “My concern here is working with the K-3 grade levels and applying all resources needed in those grade levels. I think we really need to look at providing more resources to the school.”
But Superintendent Danny Trujillo said they will have to look at the District’s budget first. He agreed to keep the number of Fairview teachers at 16 on the preliminary personnel count, until they can assess the budget further.
Fresquez said the budget assessment is Trujillo’s problem.
“It’s your headache, not mine,” he said.
Other schools’
faculty
District administrators are looking at adding one fourth grade teacher at Española Elementary. They’re looking at removing one third or fourth grade teacher from San Juan Elementary.
There might also be two vacant teacher positions at Alcalde Elementary, where Velarde Elementary students might be transferred next school year, after the School Board voted to close the latter school last year.
So far, no faculty changes are proposed at the other District elementary schools, Los Niños Kindergarten Center and Española Middle School, next school year.
Board members were supposed to tackle Española Valley High School’s personnel count at the meeting. Because they deemed the high school to be a more complicated area, they chose to postpone it until the next budget work session later this month.