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Committee reviews costs to add kindergarten units, aides and testing coordinators
Summary
Staff estimated adding 10 kindergarten units at roughly $1.6 million, recalled prior estimates for adding aides to first grade (board said roughly $7–8 million) and presented a $5.5 million estimate for adding a certified testing coordinator position across 53 sites; space and program details will be vetted during budget season.
District staff presented several staffing-and-class-size cost proposals and the committee discussed trade-offs and space constraints.
For kindergarten, staff proposed changing the allocation from a 25.5:1 to a 23.5:1 target (max class size moving from 27.5 to 25.5); adding 10 kindergarten units (each unit defined as a teacher plus an aide) was priced at $155,224 per unit, totaling about $1.6 million. Staff cautioned that some schools may lack classroom space and could require modular units, which would raise costs.
Board members also recalled a prior estimate to put an aide in each first-grade classroom and asked staff to retrieve that figure for budget planning; trustees referenced a figure in the neighborhood of $7–8 million from previous discussions. Staff agreed to pull the historical number for review.
Staff additionally estimated that adding a certified testing coordinator (a teacher-assigned, certified position at each site) across all 53 sites would cost roughly $5.5 million. The superintendent noted variations among states and standards for counselors and testing responsibilities and emphasized counselors’ increasing workload.
Finally, staff described how changing middle-school rounding parameters (eliminating 0.5 FTE allocations) would add two teachers district-wide at an estimated cost of about $207,000. The committee requested staff to include these options and space implications in the budget-season material.
