Fairfield school board reviews class size and tuberculosis testing policies

FAIRFIELD - The Fairfield School Board discussed changes to class size policies as well as guidelines for tuberculosis vaccinations at their Oct. 21 meeting.

After a public comment made by Fairfield Middle School math teacher Lisa Greenig, several members of the board brought up concerns with amendments to board policy 606.1, which would alter the language stipulating class sizes in the district. The amendments would give the school board the discretion to decide appropriate class sizes for each grade, whereas the current policy dictates a set number of students for each classroom. Following a vote, the policy was not approved at its first reading.

The policy changes were recommended by the policy committee of the board. Superintendent Laurie Noll explained that the board purchases a template of policies from the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) that is reviewed and approved by lawyers. The committee then reviews compares the district's policies to the template and makes recommendations based on differences they notice.

Greenig, who is also the co-president of the district's teacher union, the Fairfield Community Education Association (FCEA), noted the association had spoken to Superintendent Noll earlier in the year about concerns with class sizes. The original board policy followed state recommendations of the time and was originally passed in February of 1985. It was later reviewed in 2005 and again in 2015.

'The concern is that our numbers are creeping up in our lower-elementary positions and we told parents we would not increase class sizes when we combined schools. So as we are looking at budget cuts and teacher cuts, we need to be aware of what we promised our parents,” Greenig said.

The board voted in January of 2017 to close Libertyville Elementary School, combining the elementary buildings to cut costs and address declining enrollment and funding issues.

The current policy as it stands holds the board to 'strive to maintain the state goal of 17 regular program students” for primary grades kindergarten through third grade and that class sizes 'should not exceed 30 students per class” in grades 4 through 12.

The revision of the policy would replace specific class size provisions and give the school board 'the sole discretion … to determine the size of classes and to determine whether class grouping will take place.”

According to enrollment information from September of this year, all kindergarten through third grade classes exceed the 17 students per class goal. Of the five kindergarten classes at Washington Elementary School, four classes have 24 students and one class has 25. Since the closing of Libertyville Elementary School, the district has consistently had primary grade level class sizes above 17.

'If it's [the board's] sole discretion from year to year, what's to stop it from being 30 [students]? We have some health classes at the middle school that are 34 and 36,” Greenig noted.

Board member Kelly Scott said during discussion of the policy change that he was 'uncomfortable” with the ambiguous language of the amended policy and that in his experience as a teacher he's 'never seen class sizes go down.”

'Once you open it up to allowing it to go up, they just always go up,” Scott added.

'I am not in favor of this at all … I'd rather leave it the way it is,” Scott further noted.

Debi Plum, the board president said the district is 'caught between a rock and a hard spot,” and said the policy committee had a lengthy discussion about the amendments.

'I really do feel we recognized the need for smallness in lower grades, we also recognized the fiscal issues that we have … and I guess we are making the assumption that board members would do what was best for the kids. But also keeping in mind about how we are able to retain our teachers and manage to pay our teachers what we feel they're worth,” Debi Plum, the board president said.

In addition to the class size-class grouping policy, the board also decided not to approve the deletion of a guideline for tuberculosis.

The current policy requires students applying for enrollment in the district 'who have lived in a country other than the USA within the past calendar year” to 'provide proof of T.B. status before attending school.”

The board recognized that the policy is generally not enforced and Superintendent Noll also explained that students can receive waivers to bypass the requirement.

In response to the suggestion, board member Scott asked, 'Don't we have a pretty international community? Wouldn't it behoove us to kind of keep tuberculosis in check?” to which Chuck Benge, the district's curriculum director, questioned in response whether the board is 'going to deny a student their education because of [the tuberculosis policy]?”

After Board President Plum suggested that the policy, which was originally approved in October of 1994, was created in response to particular health concerns of the time and may be outdated, board member Paul Miller brought to the board's attention that a breakout of T.B. in Jefferson County occurred as recently as five years ago, which required individuals to be quarantined.

'It's been kind of our rule of thumb, the IASB templates do not have a policy and they haven't recommended it ... through their lawyer team and we refer to them,” Dr. Noll said of the recommendation to delete the guideline from the policy.