Art teacher says revised middle-school schedule limits encore access for nearly half of Moran students; district officials dispute some numbers

Anita Pelletier, an art educator at Moran Middle School, wrote to the Wallingford Instructional Committee that the district’s revised middle-school schedule is “negatively impacting nearly half” of middle-school students’ access to encore classes such as art and music.

Pelletier’s letter, read into the record by committee member Jen Passaretti, said enrollment figures show 120 students in chorus and strings and 130 in band at Moran — a total of 250 music students in a school of 545, which she wrote represents about 46 percent of the student body. She said those figures understate the broader number affected and urged the board and town council to correct what she called “inaccurate information” presented at a February board meeting.

The district’s central office administrator who responded to…