Pelum parents and teachers push board to add kindergarten teacher without cutting middle-school FAX class

Pelum School Board members and residents on June 17 debated whether to add a kindergarten teacher to handle a projected bump in enrollment and whether to preserve a beloved middle-school family & consumer-science (FAX) class.

At the meeting, resident Scott Wyn said the district should make the kindergarten position permanent to prevent overcrowded classrooms as new housing projects bring more families: "If you don't fix this, people don't forget that. This is our children and our grandchildren." Allison LaLiberte, a world-language teacher and president of the Pelum Education Association, told the board she supports smaller kindergarten classes but urged the board not to fund the change by cutting the FAX position. "The family and consumer science class is vital at the middle school level," she said, adding that the program teaches nutrition, financial literacy and hands-on career-readiness skills.

Parents echoed those concerns in public comment. Britney Acriman and Ashley McQuary described higher social-emotional needs and developmental gaps in this year's incoming kindergarteners and urged more individualized early intervention. Multiple speakers described FAX as life-skills instruction students look forward to and said removing it would be difficult to rebuild.

Superintendent Chip told the board he now projects about 127 kindergarteners for next year (122 registered at the time of the meeting) and proposed adding a teacher, an instructional assistant and classroom startup supplies. To fund that, he floated holding open one professional teaching position currently listed as unfilled—the middle-school FAX teacher—rather than increasing the district’s base budget. Chip estimated a rough annual cost of roughly $120,000–$175,000 to staff and equip an additional kindergarten classroom, with one-time startup costs around $11,000.

Board members and the public pushed back on using FAX as the funding source. Several members said they had received many emails from parents and staff opposing eliminating the program and questioned whether the enrollment projection justified an immediate hire. One board member urged the superintendent to seek alternatives and return with options: the board asked Chip to post the currently open FAX position and to come back on July 8 with alternative funding plans rather than endorsing the proposed FAX cut. The board did not adopt the superintendent's initial trade-off at the meeting.

The board heard financial context for the decision: Chip said the district has limited budget flexibility because year-end surpluses must be returned under state law, and fully funding a new classroom could add roughly $150,000 next year depending on salary/benefit choices. He suggested recruiting and beginning outreach early if the board later authorizes an additional classroom.

The board also approved a related short-term reallocation earlier in the meeting: it voted 5–0 to convert two unfilled hourly lunch/recess monitor positions (about $18,277 in wages plus benefits) into targeted hourly reading intervention for early grades, a measure school leaders and the Pelum Education Association supported as a way to boost literacy interventions without cutting programs. Superintendent Chip and staff will return with a narrower set of funding options for the kindergarten question at the July 8 meeting.

What’s next: Chip will actively recruit for the FAX position and return July 8 with revised budget options and recommendations. The board signaled it would not vote to cut the FAX class at this meeting and asked staff to identify offsets other than eliminating the program.