SPARK Pre-School Program on Chopping Block

Like an annual spring ritual along the lines of the swallows returning to Capistrano, so it is every year that the Bethlehem Area School District looks at cutting what it says is its most expensive non-mandated education program when it deliberates its budget.

This time, though, it looks as if the days of the SPARK Early Childhood Center on Linden Street may truly be numbered.

This year, even the administration is advocating closing the building where 280 at-risk 3- and 4-year-old children are prepared for Kindergarten, saying it would reduce district expenses by $1.5 million annually.

Jack Silva, the district’s assistant superintendent for education and its chief academic officer, presented that recommendation to the school board at its budget workshop on Wednesday night.

The recommendation followed a presentation in which Silva described the benefits of early childhood education, citing a National Institutes of Health study which showed pupils who attended such a program were more likely to finish high school, go to college, have higher earnings and lead healthier lives.

Under the administration’s plan, the program would be cut by more than half. Only 100 or 120 children would get pre-school in five or six elementary building classrooms scattered around the district.

SPARK would be replaced with a less extensive pre-school program through the state’s Pre-K Counts program, which provides grant money to school districts to provide pre-school to some children.

The district would be forced to “tighten” its admission standards to only allow the very neediest pre-schoolers into the new program, Silva said.

Most of the cost savings would be generated through closing a building and cutting personnel, Silva said. The district would eliminate 10 teaching positions and at least 13 other jobs, including teachers’ aides, custodians and a school nurse.

School Director Aurea Ortiz said she found the proposal “unacceptable,” saying it proposed to balance the school budget on the backs of the district’s neediest students. She was also upset with the proposed cuts of after-school programs at Donegan, Marvine and a few other elementary schools.

“How can we close the achievement gap when we are picking on the neediest ones?” Ortiz asked.

Superintendent Joseph J. Roy said those programs were funded entirely with state grants that have expired. He added that after-school tutoring would remain in place.

Roy called the SPARK decision “distasteful” and “difficult,” but necessary if the district is to plan to have “sustainable budgets” years into the future.

With this cut, the district would bring its theoretical tax increase down to 4.83 percent from the 6.16 percent increase it preliminarily adopted early this month. Most board members say they want to trim that increase down to 1.7 percent or less, which would leave the district with about $4 million more in expenses to cut.

Lori Stom, a SPARK teacher who for years has fought to maintain the program and sat through the discussion, said after the workshop that it is difficult to have to justify her job year after year, but she is “not discouraged.” She will continue to fight and look for alternative funding sources.

“I do it because I love it,” Stom said.