Board Votes Down Request to Hire Full-Time Kindergarten Teacher

Note: This article has been updated to include a correction. The kindergarten teacher request was for a .4 (part-time) gifted teacher to be made full-time. That full-time teacher would be a combined gifted/kindergarten teacher.

After Saucon Valley School District superintendent Dr. Sandra Fellin said she is concerned about increasing kindergarten class sizes, and wants to turn a part-time teaching position into full-time, a divided school board voted against the request on Tuesday.

Fellin said class sizes for the incoming kindergartners are currently at 23-24 pupils per class.

The creation of a half-time kindergarten teacher would reduce the class sizes to 20 or 21 students per class, which she called "much more reasonable."

Fellin said it could be done by turning a .4 (part-time) gifted teaching position into a full-time, combined gifted/kindergarten position.

Fellin noted that nearby districts have kindergarten classes that average in the 20-22 students-per-class range.

Her recommendation to the board was to create the full-time position by drawing about $40,000 from the district's fund balance.

Board member Bryan Eichfeld expressed dismay upon hearing the recommendation, telling the board he would have voted against maintaining a home economics teaching position at full-time—a position the district's outgoing home ec teacher and her supporters fought to preserve—had he known another full-time kindergarten teacher was needed.

"I regretted my vote that night," Eichfeld said of his vote to fund the full-time home economics position, which was included in the district's 2013-2014 budget.

The board approved that budget earlier this month.

After Eichfeld made a motion to reverse the board's earlier decision about the home economics position and make it part-time, while simultaneously creating the full-time position requested by Fellin, board member Sandra Miller called foul.

"These are two separate issues. I don’t support putting them in one vote," she said, adding that "it’s inappropriate to now change our minds" about the home economics position.

Board member Lanita Lum argued that the district has already paid money to advertise for a full-time home economics teacher to replace Julie Garvin, who retired at the end of the school year.

"One of the reasons I voted for (the full-time home economics position) is I really like and respect Julie Garvin, the teacher," Eichfeld said. "But in retrospect, we’re not hiring her. So it was not a correct vote in my mind. So I look at this as an opportunity to change it."

Eichfeld's motion failed 4-3.

Board member Charles Bartolet made a motion to support Fellin's initial recommendation to make the gifted teaching job a full-time, combined gifted/kindergarten position, which went to a vote and also failed 4-3.

Later in the discussion, he questioned Eichfeld about why he "lumped" the two things—the home economics and kindergarten teaching jobs—together in his motion.

"Because it's economic," Eichfeld responded.

"It's politics," interjected Lum.

Board member Ralph Puerta was absent from the meeting, and though he had earlier said he was interested in voting via conference call, if possible, he did not do so.

When a member of the audience and current school board candidate, Robert Phillips, asked why Puerta was not called for the important vote, Fellin said he had informed her prior to the meeting that his availability would be limited.

Miller decried the fact that the votes were taking place in a largely empty meeting room, without any prior notification to the public. 

"Nobody’s here—the teachers aren’t here, the kids aren’t here," she said.

Several board members expressed optimism that the kindergarten position could be discussed as an agenda item at a future meeting, but whether that would—or how it could—happen, remained unclear, even after advice was provided to the board by solicitor Mark Fitzgerald.

Baxter said the matter was brought before the board because the position needed to be filled immediately—not in a month, which is when the board will next meet.

If a discussion about it is placed on the July 23 school board meeting agenda, she said another discussion about the home economics position should be as well, since several members had expressed "concerns" about it.

"I think we need to stop accusing each other of what our motives are, because that’s not professional," Baxter said.

A video recording of the meeting's proceedings can be viewed on YouTube.