Groton School Board Finds Cutting is Complicated

The Groton Board of Education discussed Tuesday whether to eliminate the International Baccalaureate program at Fitch High School, whether to make parents pay for Advanced Placement tests and whether to change class sizes. But it made no final decision on those topics Tuesday night.

The board is grappling with how to cut a proposed $76.6 million education budget for the coming fiscal year, a 5.54 percent increase over last year's spending plan. To get the budget to a zero increase, it needs to find about $4 million in cuts.

The main topics discussed Tuesday are listed below:

• Eliminate the International Baccalaureate program at Fitch High School. Another suggestion was to expand it from two to four years and market it to attract students from elsewhere who pay tuition.

The IB program’s goal is to provide rigorous academics that prepare students for a global world.  But at Fitch, the program is under enrolled, with 73  candidates and six full diploma candidates this year. Five former students who returned to Fitch also said they were disappointed to find they did not receive college credit for their classes, Fitch Principal Joseph Arcarese told the board.

If the board eliminated the IB program, it would have to keep it going enough to allow this year’s juniors to finish. Savings would be minimal the first year, Ramos said. After that, students would be absorbed into Advanced Placement classes.

• Charge parents for International Baccalaureate and/or Advanced Placement exams, but reimburse the parent if the student receives a score of 3 or better.

Arcarese said the school recommends charging for AP classes and reimbursing parents if students do well to provide the students incentive. He said some seniors who are already accepted into college don’t try on the test.

“They sit for the exam and do nothing, and you’re paying for it,” he said. Each AP exam costs about $82.

The school board policy requires students who take an AP course to take the exam, so the board would revisit that policy. Charging for the exam would have minimal budget impact, because the district might still reimburse some parents and would cover students receiving free and reduced lunch.

• Change class sizes. Groton’s preferred maximum class sizes – 20 students in kindergarten, 25 for students in grades 6 through 12, and 20 students in high school English – are in step with what comparable districts have. But some of Groton's classes are lower than their comparable neighbors; for example, Groton keeps 14 students in remedial self-contained classes and 18 each in computer science and technology education.

However, changing these might not be as simple as the board first believed. Arcarese said technology class sizes reflect the number of computers available. Other classes, such as consumer science, have cooking stations and safety regulations to contend with. The district also has maximums on the number people, including staff, allowed in classrooms based on square footage.

The board continues its budget discussion at 6 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the school administrative office building.