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By MARK GUYDISH markg@leader.net
Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Page: 3A
DALLAS – In the end, complex state and federal rules are the knife that
could carve up Dallas School District’s elementary buildings.
Faced with rising enrollment and no classroom space, the district is
mulling a plan to reconfigure where grades are taught: kindergarten through
third would go to Dallas Elementary, while fourth and fifth would go to
Wycallis Elementary.
The plan is tentative and board members promised to take no action without
public input.
While administrators cited numerous reasons for the plan, three key ones
are beyond the district’s control. Here’s how it played out, as described by
Superintendent Gilbert Griffiths and Assistant Superintendent Michael
Speziale:
State funding
The state has a complicated protocol, dubbed “PlanCon,” which districts
follow to get state money for construction or renovations. Dallas has used
that system to offset close to 10 percent of construction costs, which
included building Wycallis and revamping other schools.
A key factor is projected enrollment and state projections have shown that
Dallas School District’s population will shrink. However, Dallas has grown –
by about 200 students in the last year or so – thanks to booming migration
from outlying areas and a surge in transfers from private schools, Griffiths
said.
The upshot: The state refused to pay for a larger version of Wycallis when
it was built. The board added a few rooms anyway, but it wasn’t enough.
The state also has a “20-year” rule, Speziale said, that bans Dallas from
getting more money for new elementary construction – even if enrollment keeps
growing.
Full-day kindergarten
Speziale and Griffiths expect the state to mandate full-day kindergarten
within a few years, which would double the need for kindergarten classrooms
and teachers.
A new wing with 10 rooms – costing at least $800,000 – would solve the
immediate problem and give the district two spare rooms for further growth. It
would be cheaper than constructing a separate building, an important
consideration with the state’s refusal to offer financial help.
The wing would also free up four existing rooms. The cost of four new
teachers, with salaries and benefits, would hover around $250,000, Griffiths
said.
Test score mandates
The new federal No Child Left Behind Act has a string of requirements that
affected the proposal. When broken down, they look like a set of dominoes
falling:
Students must be tested annually in reading and math from third through
eighth grade. By 2014, all students must score “proficient or better.”
Average scores in each school must show “adequate yearly progress”
toward that goal.
Four groups of students must be tracked separately: Low-income, special
education, English as second language and ethnic minorities. If the average
scores in any of those groups are too low, the entire school is judged to have
failed – even if test scores overall are high.
If a school has fewer than 75 students in any one group, the scores are
not looked at separately.
In measuring adequate yearly progress, Pennsylvania decided that scores
don’t have to change much annually, but must show the required improvement
from third to fifth and fifth to eighth grades.
This all led to the recommendation to split the schools so that one had
third grade and the other had fifth. Speziale said the two grades separately
do not have 75 students in any of the categories, but together could meet the
threshold.
That would mean the school could fail to meet new standards, even though
scores overall for Dallas are consistently high.
Speziale noted long-range planning is hard with the rapid rule changes.
“It’s an issue that is not going to go away, but it is an issue we can’t
really put our hands on.”
Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161.