Sherman R. Frederick
Novato Advance
When Novato Unified School District President Derek Knell gavelled in the Jan. 25 trustee meeting, he probably knew it was going to be a tough meeting.
Not only would he and the board get yelled at by irate parents upset about the idea of mandatory mask-wearing for students to attend school, but the board also had to deal with a big decline in the number of students that has produced a severe overstaffing.
As a consequence, the board voted to accept a staff recommendation that would cut more than 50 people from the district in the next school year.
The staff, led by Superintendent Jan La Torre-Derby, told the board that declining enrollment will almost certainly lead to layoffs next year.
The exact number could change depending upon retirements, etc, the superintendent said. “But we have to make sure enrollment matches staffing.”
And right now, the NUSD is “doubly over-staffed.”
The staff report stated that “the current enrollment projection for the 2022-2023 school year is 7,005 students. This represents an overall decline in enrollment of slightly more than 114 students from the 2020-2021 school year. As a result of this declining enrollment, the District is overstaffed with classroom teachers at the TK-5 level and in many subject areas in grades 6-12. In many cases, class sizes are well below the limits agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement between the District and the Novato Federation of Teachers. The District has reviewed its current enrollment at all grade levels and has accounted for retirements and other positive attrition. Based on all of this information, the District has projected it will need 57.4 fewer teachers in grades TK – 12.”
Some classes in NUSD have as few as 12 students in a classroom. The goal is for each classroom to have 28.
In another wrinkle in the meeting, a handful of parents showed up at the board to tell them that if they mandate mask wearing in school, more kids will leave the district.
Christy Martinelli, a local real estate agent and mother of students in the district, told the board that if they force parents to mask their kids at school, then the district will lose more students.
“I’m not anti-vaxx. My kids are vaccinated,” she said. “I want to be able to make the choice,” I’m telling you right now” a lot of people are ready to pull their kids.”
Another speaker claimed that “masks don’t work” and forcing kids to wear masks in school is “absurd.” “When are school boards across America going to listen to parents, and not Teachers Unions,” she asked the board.
One speaker said mask mandates divide the community and create fear.
“I am seeing people all over Marin driving alone in masks. That’s lunacy,” he said.
(You can reach the writer via email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Tina G McMillan says
Some of the information in this article is incorrect, for example classroom size. The goal is not for each classroom at every grade level to reach 28 students.
Elementary, Middle and High School Staffing are all governed by contracts and state funding supplements. The more populated classrooms increase with grade level.
NUSD is also continuously monitoring the number of students in their schools and the reasons parents stay or leave.
If masks and Covid regulations are the issue, then the onetime loss of those families may be a foregone conclusion. Parents objecting to Covid regulations may also have other reasons for moving students to schools that better reflect their personal beliefs about curriculum and teaching.
NUSD’s work toward comprehensive fiscal reform is a much-needed effort to avoid receivership and is being supported by the board and by MCOE.
The next step is educating the community to gain their support.
Some of these spending cuts are long overdue.
The state underfunds education mandates making restructuring a necessary and continuous effort.