Housatonic German program could shrink as 2008-09 budget cuts get underway

The proposed German reduction from a full-time teacher to a .4 position spawned a series of letters and public comments by parents of German-language students. At a special budget meeting Jan. 9, 14 parents and two students praised the program and spoke out against any reduction.

Marjorie Becker, who chairs the world languages department, spoke of the impact of the proposed reductions. Housatonic also offers French and Spanish, but those two languages have higher enrollments.

At the Feb. 12 workshop, Foster presented a handout with numbers of students in the various classes at Housatonic. A total of 36 students are enrolled in the four German courses offered at the school - far fewer than in most of the school's other programs but about the same as some of the offerings of the agriculture education department. The savings realized by the proposed German reduction would be about $17,500, including benefits.

"The history [of the program] doesn't support the numbers, said Region One Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain. "Some small districts are struggling just to keep two languages."

Region One Board Chairman Judge Manning agreed with Foster's recommendation to pare the German program to two sections, but Salisbury representative Amanda Halle feared it would ultimately spell the end of the program - perhaps because of the difficulty of reducing it to a part-time faculty position.

"If we cut to .4, can we find a teacher?" she asked. "Or does that mean our German program is kaput? Whatever it takes to keep German, I'm in favor."

Peter Fleischmann, the school's German teacher, told the board during the public comment portion of the meeting that he would like to stay, but that even a reduction of his position to .6 would make it difficult for him to remain at Housatonic.

There was also a spirited discussion of Foster's plan to add the business, finance and technology teacher position. Currently the school has a .4 business teacher, but Foster came to the meeting with statistics indicating that business administration and computer science are among the top 10 U.S. college majors and that technology and business rank in the top five industries for entry-level employment.

"We need to look at how we grow that department," Foster said. "It's such an important part of life."

But there was some concern on the board that with Housatonic's enrollments shrinking, selling the idea to the public of creating an additional full-time faculty position would be a challenge.

"The public will ask about another FTE [full-time equivalent]," said Sam Herrick, the Region One business manager.

Cornwall representative Phil Hart said he, too, thought it would be a tough sell, but "the board has to have the courage to take to the public what is necessary to deliver a quality educational program."

Ultimately, the board agreed to reduce the German teaching position to only .6 and keep in the new technology position.

But that brought the budget increase back up to 5.96 percent, which the board thought was too high, especially since the six local school boards were said to be facing large increases of their own. Foster was asked if she could cut anywhere else to get the increase back down to 5.74 percent.

"I don't want to touch any more curricular areas," she insisted.

"No matter what you pick, people will object because they like what we offer," added Chamberlain.

Foster said she did not know where she would find the savings. She will return to the board's next workshop on Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. in the high school library.