When classes start again Aug. 9, Kyrene School District students will spend less time in physical education and music every week, and five minutes more in art.
Kyrene Governing Board members voted to change next year’s scheduling for so-called special areas, including art, physical education and music to 45 minutes each once a week. The 3-2 decision reversed the board’s prior vote to make no changes to scheduling.
However, Superintendent Dr. David Schauer scheduled a special meeting late last month, recommending to adopt the 45-minute model discussed in past meetings to provide the most savings to account for the $5.3 million budget deficit for the 2011-12 school year.
Last year’s special area schedule was: physical education and art twice per week for 30 minutes, and art once per week for 40 minutes.
“I feel it is our duty to talk to you about some things that could result from that decision during the last meeting,” Schauer said. “The last budget that we passed gave us very little flexibility, and so we were uncomfortable with that.”
He said the recommendation would provide the most savings of all models that were studied. Savings would be put towards other areas and eliminating major increases on class sizes.
“What we had talked about was to look at a class size range,” he said.
The 45-minute model for music, physical education, art and library will help to lower the amount of increased class sizes, said Karin Smith, financial services director for Kyrene.
The model would allow for $1 million savings in increased class-size ranges, which would provide a more positive outcome for classes than the previous model approved by members, she said.
The revised changes to the budget will save the district a total of $2.1 million, Smith said.
The model will also provide $360,000 to hire new staff in lieu of increased enrollment predictions.
Kyrene governing board member Ross Robb made the final motion to approve the 45-minute model, after parents and teachers addressed board members with concerns on limiting special area classes to 45 minutes.
Robb said he did not agree that each special area needed equal amounts of time allocated during the week, and the board will need to come up with more creative decisions in the future.
“There’s certainly no doubt in my mind that we will be implementing a new special model next year,” he said.
