By RUSSELL JONES
The Quarry Valley Unified Union school district is still working out all the kinks after merging districts, but after a five-month freeze on spending they are expecting to end the year in the black.
“Louis (Milazzo, the district business manager) has estimated a small surplus,” GRCSU superintendent Deborah Taylor, Ph.D., said at the board meeting on Monday, June 17. “Although that is based on several other estimates of where we’ll end for the year.”
At the meeting, Proctor Elementary principal Christy Coloutti notified the district of a looming problem and asked for help rectifying the situation.
“I would like to ask the board to hire a general education para-educator,” Coloutti said. “We currently have 18 kids registered for kindergarten next year and only one teacher.”
Coloutti said that all the other paras the school has are assigned to individual students for special education and a new general education para would help with the kindergarten children. It would also be the least expensive option, although it may soon be out of the district’s hand.
The district has set up guidelines for itself on the class limits it wants in its schools. The minimum class size is 10 students and the optimal class size, according to the district, is 15. However, they have determined the maximum class size is 20.
“It would cost approximately $30,000 to hire a para,” Dr. Taylor said. “Another teacher would cost closer to $55,000.”
Coloutti told the board she would know more at the next meeting.
“We should definitely know if any more kids register in July,” she said. “You have to keep in mind though, these are little kids. They need a lot of attention.”
The board will determine what steps to take regarding the kindergarten situation at Proctor at their next meeting on July 15.
Proctor Jr./Sr. High principal Christopher Sell addressed the board to thank them for the work on Taranovich Field.
“I want to thank the board for taking on this headache and also the Markowski’s for their work, we came in under budget.”
Sell had others to thank for the project as well. The headache he referred to is the resurfacing of Taranovich Field, the field used for school sports such as soccer. Last summer after being regraded and replanted, the field was not level and turnips were found growing on the field.
Markowski Excavation donated their time and work expenses to regrade, level, and seed the field properly and Sell reported that the work is now finished and new grass is growing.
He said he was optimistic that it can be used for soccer season, but only time will tell if the grass is ready by then.
“You really embraced the vision of Quarry Valley and helped us out,” Sell told the board as he thanked them for their work. “This is something that will be a Proctor issue in the future and we’ll maintain it from here on out.”
