A double whammy of budget cuts and unfilled positions pushed Bryant Elementary to the limit. Additional staff and volunteers save the day.
By EVE LEBERSON
Published December 28, 2003
KEYSTONE - Bryant Elementary's kindergarten classrooms began the school year oversized and understaffed.
These days kindergarten is running more smoothly, thanks to extra help and smaller classes.
Districtwide budget cuts and vacated aide positions forced the school on Nine Eagles Drive to begin in August with only three kindergarten aides for the 200 students in its eight classes. "Because of the leaves (of absence) and such . . . we just happened to be a school that had all those openings," principal Debi Veranth said.
And most kindergarten classes began the year rather large. One class started out with 34 students. At the school's county-mandated fifth-day count, it was determined "we had more students then we were supposed to have in a classroom," Veranth said.
In September the school added a ninth kindergarten class to reduce classroom size. "With the added personnel, we're now down to 20 to 25," Veranth said.
Bryant also has hired four more kindergarten aides. Two teachers still must share aides.
Veranth hasn't forgotten the parents and grandparents who volunteered to help in the kindergarten classes the first week of school. Without their help, she said, the first days would have been much more harried.
