Greensburg Salem weighs hiring to alleviate large kindergarten class size

Greensburg Salem is considering adding an elementary teacher to help reduce large kindergarten class sizes at Metzgar Elementary.

The school board is expected to vote at its Sept. 8 meeting on whether to advertise the position. District administrators recommended the move after noting there are as many as 28 kindergarten students per teacher at the elementary school in Salem.

“At the kindergarten level, that’s way too high,” Acting Superintendent Ken Bissell said at this week’s board discussion meeting. “It’s the largest incoming class we’ve had in some time.

“We would hope to start with a substitute (teacher), shuffle to get the kids into a classroom early, and advertise to get the position.”

“We want to do something to give these kids a boost,” said school board member Frank Gazze. “You’re a kindergartner once. That is the magic time. If you lose it, you don’t get it back.”

Board member Jeff Metrosky acknowledged the need to reduce the kindergarten class size, but he wondered, “How do we do it and be fiscally responsible?”

He expressed concern that adding an elementary teacher will increase the district’s personnel costs for years to come.

Greensburg Salem might initially cover costs of the position by drawing upon some of its pandemic recovery funding or a $250,000 supplement to its basic state subsidy. But, Business Manager J.R. Dzurica said, “We’re using grant funds that may not be there in the future.”

Metrosky floated the alternative idea of consolidating second-grade classrooms at Hutchinson Elementary, increasing classroom sizes there to no more than 20 or 21, while freeing up one of six teachers at that grade level to shift to Metzgar.

Lenni Nedley, coordinator of elementary education, federal programs and instruction, recommended against that idea. She said the district placed six second-grade teachers at Hutchinson because the students there need extra help.

“There’s six teachers so that there’s two teachers on a team to address the high needs of that second-grade class,” she said. She explained half of the teachers focus on literacy while the remaining instructors concentrate on math skills.

“Going from first grade to second grade is such a big shift,” she said.

Board member Robin Savage noted there has been a suggestion that some parents may take their students out of district classes if Greensburg Salem on Tuesday complies with a covid-19-related state mandate for everyone to wear masks inside all K-12 school buildings.

“Before we decide to hire, we should look to see if those (student) numbers go down.”

Superintendent search advances

In other personnel matters, board President Ronald Mellinger Jr. reported the school board is reviewing 13 applicants for the district’s superintendent post and plans to conduct interviews next week.

“We’re not rushing it and we’re not dragging it out,” Mellinger said of the superintendent search.

Bissell, Greensburg Salem’s coordinator of secondary education, has served as acting superintendent since previous superintendent Gary Peiffer’s June 30 departure to accept a similar position at Chartiers-Houston School District in Washington County.

On Sept. 8, the Greensburg Salem board also will consider a five-year agreement that would provide salary increases collectively totaling $70,000 to 14 district administrators from this past July 1 through June 30, 2026.