Class Sizes for Music, Art Are Up

By Andy Hall, The Wisconsin State Journal

Oct. 7–Many of Madison ‘s elementary art, music, physical education and computer classes are being watered down to deal with budget cuts and scheduling changes, according to many teachers.

This fall, to save $861,000, class sizes in many of those so-called “specials ” courses have ballooned 50 percent at the 21 schools with the highest concentrations of low-income students. As a result, classrooms and class-to-class transitions are becoming more chaotic for students and teachers, 18 specials teachers said in interviews and e-mails with the Wisconsin State Journal.

“Do you want (children) to be connected to school, or do you want them to be run through like a factory? ” asked Nancy Harms, a physical education teacher at Kennedy Elementary on the Far East Side.

Harms estimates that one of the changes at her school — the elimination of five-minute periods to transfer students from regular to specials classes — will deprive a typical student of at least 15 hours of specials classes per year. The biggest districtwide change this fall means that specials class sizes in all 31 elementary schools are now the same throughout the district, about 22 or 23 students in each class.

But schools Superintendent Art Rainwater said the cuts and other changes are manageable — and unavoidable because of state revenue limits.

“This isn ‘t a new concept at all, ” said Rainwater, who noted that all district specials classes were this large before 2000, when the district adopted the state ‘s Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program to reduce class sizes for literacy and math sessions to 15 students per teacher. At the time, Madison added its own twist by reducing the size of the specials classes to the same level.

“After 13 years of budget cuts, you continue to have to make priorities, ” added Rainwater, who said that the district has been forced to cut $60 million in programs, including $7.9 million last year, to conform to state revenue limits.

“Why can these people not handle it when others in the district and across the country have handled it forever? ” Rainwater asked.

Variations in state

While data on elementary specials class sizes aren ‘t gathered by the state, spot checks with several districts show wide variations.

In Milwaukee Public Schools, 32 students typically are packed into specials classes, MPS spokesman Phil Harris said.

Monona Grove ‘s classes tend to have 20 to 22 students, Superintendent Gary Schumacher said.

Verona ‘s classes have 15 students in kindergarten through third grade, and increase to about 25 for students in fourth and fifth grades, Superintendent Dean Gorrell said.

Sue Abplanalp, the assistant superintendent overseeing Madison ‘s elementary schools, said that some schools, such as Van Hise, Elvehjem and Kennedy, have always had class sizes of about 22 to 25 for specials classes in kindergarten through fifth grade, and “they made it work. ” The sharp increases in class sizes this year affected kindergarten through third-grade classes at 13 schools and kindergarten and first-grade classes at eight schools.

Fewer than five Madison teachers have complained to the district about this year ‘s changes, she said, and principals haven ‘t indicated serious problems.

“It ‘s a change for people, and I think until they work out the systems to make this change effective, people are going to be struggling, ” Abplanalp said.

The School Board knew there might be problems, President Arlene Silveira said, but made the move because it needed to slash $7.9 million, and other schools in the district and state long had operated with the larger specials classes. The goal, Silveira said, is to “get beyond the back-to-school kinks and then see how it plays out. “

Union upset

Teachers interviewed by the State Journal, however, counter that district officials must be out of touch if they ‘re unaware of the problems, and that teachers haven ‘t complained to Abplanalp because they believe there ‘s little hope of obtaining more teachers or changing the schedule in the middle of the school year.

Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers union, which has quarreled with the district over working conditions for specials teachers for more than a decade, is inviting teachers to report problems. One issue is the lack of a 10-minute break when a teacher is with students for two consecutive hours. On Friday, the union filed a complaint against the School District with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission contending that some specials teachers have been forced to exceed work time limits.

“I would say it ‘s a serious, urgent issue, ” said Doug Keillor, assistant to MTI Executive Director John Matthews.

There is one sign of progress. The union and district plan to discuss ways to reduce the number of schools to which some specials teachers are assigned to reduce time wasted in traveling and to help teachers bond with students. “We ‘re just jumping from one school to the next school, ” Keillor said.

June Glennon, employment manager for the district, compiled figures showing the problem is worst among music teachers. Four of the district ‘s full-time music teachers are assigned to four schools, and two are assigned to five schools.

Like several teachers interviewed, art teacher Tracy Gallo said she loves teaching but is considering leaving the Madison district or switching careers because of stress and frustration.

Gallo, who works at Stephens Elementary on the West Side, said she scaled back her schedule, from five to four days a week, “just to survive the year. “

“Now some kids are going to fall between the cracks because you can ‘t get to them, ” she said.

The class size increases this fall at the 21 elementary schools is limited to specials classes. For literacy and math, class sizes in those schools remain at 15 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade under the state ‘s widely praised SAGE program, which aims to provide more help for low-income students who generally are at a higher risk of failing.

But for the specials classes, which aren ‘t governed by SAGE, classes now commonly consist of 15 students from a regular classroom plus half of the students from another regular classroom, boosting class sizes to 22 or 23 — and slightly higher for grades three through five. Other schools bring together equal numbers of children from three or four regular classrooms into a specials class.

“Our seeing more students at a time than regular classroom teachers is neither equitable nor educationally sound, ” said Lynn Hallie Najem, a music teacher in Madison for 18 years who works at Lapham and Franklin.

The specials teachers said the changes are breaking the cohesion students have formed in regular classrooms and wasting time as specials teachers manage multiple arrivals and departures of classes. Some say they have less time to plan and may have 200 more students than they had last year, making it difficult to form personal bonds.

“What I ‘m seeing is the value of music, art and gym is being degraded, ” said Barbara Chusid, a music teacher in Madison for 19 years who works at Emerson. “It ‘s not the district ‘s fault that these cuts have been made. … Just to stay alive, the schools are concentrating ” on literacy and math, which are the focus of standardized tests and the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Poverty an issue

It ‘s a mistake to return to the larger class sizes that prevailed before 2000, teachers said, because poverty has increased in the district, meaning more children than ever need individual attention to stay focused on learning.

In 2000, 27 percent of Madison ‘s students were classified as low-income, meaning they met federal guidelines for free and reduced price lunches.

By last school year, the district figure rose to 40 percent — double the level of any other Dane County school district. And it topped 65 percent at six schools — Glendale, Lincoln, Mendota, Midvale, Lake View and Lindbergh.

“As the level of poverty increases, the kids … need more attention, ” said Katharine Goray McCoy, an art teacher at Lowell and Glendale schools on the East Side who has worked in the district for two decades.

Over the years, she ‘s heard from high school students who credited their successes in specials classes with opening a path to success in other subjects.

“For some kids, that might actually save their life, ” McCoy said.

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