Daily Sitka Sentinel

Grade School Faces Loss of Reading Specialist

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The staff members at Baranof Elementary School will be without a key resource for reading instruction when they return to school this fall.
    The latest round of budget cuts in the school district resulted in the loss of a reading specialist position at the elementary school. The position involved two half-time roles as a reading coach for children and a reading interventionist.
    Toby Campbell held the position for about the last six years and is moving to a new role in the district*. She said the job involved a mix of working individually with students who needed help and working with teachers to help identify and work with kids who were behind in their reading skills.
    “In my position, I oversaw the intervention program for kindergarten and first grade. We had individualized and small-group lessons for children who needed an additional dose of reading and writing each day,” Campbell said.
    Reading has been, and continues to be, a major point of emphasis for the district, which is why the position of reading specialist came to exist in the first place.
    Campbell said the thinking is fairly simple: the earlier you can address a child’s needs, then the easier it is for that child to keep pace with their education. A small gap in first grade can turn into a huge gap by sixth grade if not addressed early, she said.
    “That is huge. We all know that if you catch kids early it’s a lot less expensive than if you try to help them later on,” Campbell said.
    Superintendent Mary Wegner said the decision to eliminate the reading specialist position did not come easily. Sitka schools have faced consecutive years of budget cuts that have affected positions like the high school activities director and the community schools director. The School Board has maintained a policy of making cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. The next step, Wegner said, is to attack the budget based on the community’s priorities.
    “When we looked at all of the positions in the district we know that the community and the board and the district’s goal is to maintain low student to teacher ratios,” she said.
    So the school district administrators looked at schools that were expecting a decline in enrollment and could therefore absorb a position loss better than a school that was about to see an increase in students.
    “The two schools that were looking at declining enrollment were Baranof and Blatchley, so those were the two schools we looked at,” Wegner said.
    Wegner said the Blatchley program and the Baranof program are similar in scope but serve different student groups. Part of the decision to cut the specialist at Baranof instead of at Blatchley was based on which position officials thought could be better covered by remaining staff.
    Like the Baranof reading specialist, the Blatchley reading specialist  works with kids who are not at grade level. But in addition, Wegner said, the Blatchley specialist also works with students who are non-native English speakers. Wegner said that resource is valuable in helping students navigate lingering language barriers.
    Additionally, Blatchley had other programs that were on the list of potential cuts. The home economics program was one that went away this year, and the shop program had also been looked at. Wegner said the decision to keep the Blatchley reading specialist was somewhat related to the decision to cut home economics, which was made “a long time ago.”
    The home economics teacher, who also taught English as a Second Language, could be moved into the reading specialist position to meet some of the same goals.
    “The population that the reading teacher at Blatchley was serving was a population similar to the home ec,” Wegner said, explaining that the decision to cut the Baranof specialist was partly to avoid too big of a hit to Blatchley.
    Additionally, Wegner said, the Baranof staff members have come a long way in their ability to help students who are struggling with reading.
    “When those (programs) had started we had done very little in terms of professional development. Since that time we’ve invested a lot of our Title I monies in helping teachers be more effective in their interventions in helping kids who are not successful in their reading skills,” Wegner said.
    District reading scores have also increased.
    Campbell said in her work at Baranof the staff had “grown professionally” in the understanding of literacy instruction, but it may still be a tough road for teachers.
    “That said, I don’t know that it continues on its own, necessarily. I think it’s one of those situations that is very complex,” she said. “Literacy learning is very complex and it’s very individualized. Each year has its own ... group of children and its own challenges.”
    Wegner said this cut, like other budget cuts, is going to be hard on the district staffers who need to fill in the gap.
    “Baranof staff were very concerned because they are of course looking at some students with some real needs,” Wegner said.
    The average cost of a teacher, between salary and benefits, is budgeted at around $100,000. Wegner said the district is looking at other ways to fill those holes through grants and other funding. If the money becomes available, Wegner said, then the district would bring the program back.
    “We just have to figure out how to fund that with declining revenues. It is something that is very much on our radar,” Wegner said.
    In fact, the district would like to expand those programs if the money is there.
    “We would really love to provide more intervention at all levels. We have historically done reading interventions but we have a need for math interventions and help in other areas.”
    Campbell said she hopes the district can find ways to further provide the help children need in reading but she knows it will be hard.
    “I definitely think it’s going to be hard to sustain the strengths of this program. We have noticed the strengths of this program and the children who need that extra dose. I think it will be much trickier.”
    The School Board unanimously passed this year’s budget last April. It included $250,000 in cuts from the previous year. The budget included a $400,000 drawdown of the district’s reserve account and, additionally, the budget reserves had to cover the cost of new curriculum materials needed for the state-mandated changes to math instruction. Those costs came in at around $200,000 and were approved at the School Board’s June meeting.
    All told, Wegner said, the current state of education funding is going to result in lost programs, and that is going to be tough for the district.
    “Nobody’s happy with the fact that we have to make those kinds of cuts,” she said.

*This story was corrected Wednesday, July 23 to reflect that Toby Campbell was not retiring from the district. Campbell is moving to a new role in the district. Former reading specialist Carol Potrzuski retired from Blatchley.