4/9/09
The Dixon Elementary’s parents advisory committee received an unexpected blow earlier this month when it was informed it may have to wait one more year before a seventh grade can be added to the school.
Superintendent David Cockerham told Dixon Elementary parent and head-teacher Kiva Duckworth-Moulton April 1 that the school’s request for a new grade should have been submitted to the state Education Department by July 1, 2008, if it wanted to add a grade for the 2009-10 school year.
“The statute or the regulation says that you submit for the following year,” state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said. “They were late in submitting. This should have come in a year ago. However, there have been circumstances where we do waive that requirement for implementation the following year.”
Garcia would not comment on what circumstances would allow the state to waive the earlier deadline.
Duckworth-Moulton said a one-year delay would not stop the committee from expanding the school beyond its current configuration of kindergarten through sixth grade.
“We wouldn’t give up on it,” Duckworth-Moulton said.
The committee will move ahead and try to submit its request by July 1 of this year. The committee has complied with some of the requirements that the District mandated be completed before the request for an additional grade is put before the Board for approval. The committee still needs to schedule and hold a District-wide community meeting about the proposed change. It also has to provide the District a guarantee that at least 20 students will enroll in the school’s new grade.
The District determined that 20 students would be enough to cover costs of the additional salary for the seventh-grade teacher and any supplies.
Duckworth-Moulton told the Board she had secured 11 students from the existing sixth-grade students. But if the school has to wait a year, Duckworth-Moulton would have to seek 20 students from the current fifth grade level.
If the committee meets these requirements, the Board will vote on whether to approve the new grade. The ball will then be in Garcia’s court. She said she’ll be looking at the financial impact to the District of adding a new grade.
“I believe we’ll have to look at if this will require any additional cost in terms of transportation or general funds and if it is cost neutral,” Garcia said. “It does have implications for (standardized testing) and we’ll certainly have to look at that but we’ll consider that in working with the District.”
Cockerham said he doesn’t think Garcia will approve the additional grade because it may set a precedent across the state for schools that want to add a new grade.
“I think every situation is different, and so we will do our best to work with the District but they need to submit that as soon as possible,” Garcia said.