Schools

Breaking Down the Budget: What an 8-Period Day Would Mean

Special education and junior high students in particular would face hardships.

Just like , the fate of the Three Village Central School District's nine-period day in secondary schools likely rests in the hands of the voters.

Should the community vote down the school budget in May, the district may have to resort to putting out a budget that includes a 3 percent tax levy increase – or no increase at all, should a contingency budget be in the future – reducing the secondary schools to an eight-period day would be devastating, according to administrators and guidance counselors who lobbied at last week's school board meeting to protect the district's nine-period day at the secondary level.

They say special education students may not be able to graduate high school in four years, and seventh- and eighth-graders would not be able to meet state-mandated requirements for subjects such as foreign language and health if an eight-period day were to be implemented.

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"The only way that it would work in a middle school program ... you'd have to keep those mandates in with the seventh and the eighth graders. You have to keep a program that's showing a nine period day," said Murphy principal Vincent Vizzo. "...It's a difficult time we know that but to meet our requirements, we couldn't do it in the seventh and the eighth grade program the way we need to do it."

Vizzo explained that ninth graders' schedules could possibly run on an eight-period day, but would suffer from a lack of electives for them to take.

Find out what's happening in Three Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Those potential cuts would also lessen what has been described as a rich educational program in the district's junior high and high schools by eliminating a slew of electives. Class scheduling would be made even more difficult – and more student requests for classes will be unmet – with fewer time slots in which to hold classes. Should the district go to an eight-period format, it would suffer a 20 percent reduction in staffing at the high school level alone, according to high school principal Dr. Alan Baum.

"People are in envy of the offerings our students have both in and out of the classroom," he said. "That is a substantial decrease in our teachers and in our course offerings. ... This would greatly reduce [students'] ability to take high level electives."

According to budget documents released by the district, with a proposed budget that carries a 4.5 percent tax levy increase, reductions already factored in include: more than 27 full-time equivalent teaching positions would be eliminated; programs like and theater arts would be relegated to after-school clubs; the Focus program would be reduced drastically; the and PM school would be eliminated. But the nine period day structure would be maintained.

However, board president John Diviney said the real issue wasn't the number of periods in a day – it's the level of staffing and depth of elective offerings the school provides. Reductions there would yield the savings for the district.

"The quandary you run into here ... I think we all can agree ... is it gets increasingly more difficult to say we’re a college preparatory program," he said.


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