State College Downsizes Swim Classes; Board Mulls Alternatives

The State College schools will drop swimming lessons from the elementary- and middle-school-level curricula for the 2010-2011 year, saving $16,000 to $20,000 in the process, school officials confirmed Monday.

That change is part of roughly $3.4 million in expenses cut from the district budget. Those reductions allowed the board to hold a property-tax increase this year to about three percent.

But the swimming-program change isn’t so much about budgetary savings as it was about restoring instructional time to the classroom, Assistant Superintendent Michael Hardy said. Students had been bussed — during the school day — to the State College Area High School natatorium for 10 hours of swimming instruction in third grade and again in seventh grade.

Superintendent Richard Mextorf said he discovered that district professionals had to devise 13 separate schedules for the seventh-grade swim classes alone. Given the district’s ‘current financial and educational realities,’ Mextorf said, he believes the time could be more effectively spent. (The district this year has eliminated 18.25 positions through attrition.)

Swimming will remain a part of the physical-education curriculum at the high-school level, school officials said.

And, per a request from the board, district administrators are considering options for how they might offer elementary- and middle-school swim classes outside of the typical school day. One possibility, presented by Hardy and Natatorium Coordinator Heather Shakley on Monday night, would make elementary classes available after school and middle-school classes available in the summer.

Under that plan, students could enroll on a voluntary basis starting in the 2011-2012 school year, administrators said. Students would pay no fees, according to the proposal.

But Hardy said the cost to the district would eliminate the $16,000 to $20,000 in savings realized through the swim-program cuts this year. In addition, he said, the district would need to drop an after-school intramural program at the pool in order to make the facility available for the new classes.

Board members reached no consensus Monday over the idea. Board member Penni Fishbaine suggested that perhaps a small fee could be imposed for the voluntary classes — and that the fee could be waived for low-income families.

Mextorf said he thinks that idea is reasonable. Still, he wondered aloud whether some low-income families would be uncomfortable seeking a fee waiver and may do without the classes.

Board member Gowen Roper said he would rather see class sizes be increased as a cost-savings measure — not a fee structure.

Meanwhile, Jim Pawelczyk, another board member, said the district has reduced the scope of its curriculum by cutting swim lessons from the elementary and middle-school gym classes this year.

‘And I’m not comfortable with that,’ he said. Pawelczyk said he believes the swimming curriculum ought to be restored to physical-education classes.

His colleague Richard Bartnik took another stance, asking ‘if it’s not part of the curriculum, why (would we be) running an after-school aquatics program?’ He said swimming lessons are available at a variety of community entities, including through the YMCA and public pools.

Chris Small, another board member, underscored the district’s financial pressures. ‘I don’t know that, in this financial environment … that we can afford’ to pay for swimming lessons for elementary and middle-school students, he said.

Administrators said they would take the board members’ feedback and develop some new ideas for consideration at future meetings.

In other business Monday night, the board agreed 8-0 to begin a search for labor negotiators. The district is considering whether to hire an outside labor negotiator — a qualified law firm — to assist in upcoming teacher-contract negotiations.

The district’s current contract with the State College Area Education Association, the teachers’ union, is set to expire next summer.

District officials have used the help of legal counsel in past negotiations, business administrator Jeffrey Ammerman said. This time around, he said, the district will look more broadly for potential counsel.

‘We’re certainly looking at folks who have done this more than five or 10 times,’ Ammerman said.