BonnerSprings.com

One of the biggest changes to the 2009-2010 school year, due to budget cuts in the district totaling more than $1 million, will be one noticed in all three elementary schools.

Bonner Springs Elementary, Edwardsville Elementary and Delaware Ridge Elementary will no longer have assistant principals — a measure that is unfortunate, says Superintendent Robert Van Maren, but necessary.

“Well, we couldn’t afford it and we decided, through the process, that we’d rather reduce administrative support rather than cut teachers,” Van Maren said.

Van Maren reported, however, that this reduction in force had led to new positions for all three former assistant principals in the district. Former Delaware Ridge assistant principal Aaron Miller will take on the position as principal at Edwardsville Elementary; former Bonner Springs Elementary assistant principal Gayle Bertram found a position as a principal in the Turner district; and former Edwardsville Elementary assistant principal Erin Bloom found a job in Kansas City, Mo.

“I think they serve a very important function,” Van Maren said of assistant principals, noting how much support these positions offered to all aspects of a school. “So that’s a concern, just because they handle a lot of the disciplining, a lot of the student issues.”

Other cutbacks due to budget cuts include those in the areas of food service and maintenance. In addition, Van Maren said, custodial contracts at Edwardsville and Delaware Ridge had been reduced.

“Less help, less people to clean the buildings,” he said of what this will mean for the school year. “Instead of buffing the floor every night, the floor’s going to be buffed every other night. They’re not going to be as perfectly clean as they were before.”

Van Maren said that administrative staff in the district will now take on more duties. Assistant principal at Bonner Springs High School Rick Moulin, for example, will now be adding to his assistant principal duties the YouthFriends coordinator position, formerly held by retiree Larry Berg, as well as the district safety coordinator — a new position that has been federally mandated.

Enrollment numbers are expected to go up by about 50 students over the enrollment count last year, Van Maren said, and with that increase will come an increase in class size. He said the average class size is expected to reach just under 25 students, where before the district had averaged about 21 students per class.

Van Maren said all of these new and returning students should expect to see some positive changes in the buildings when they arrive back at school Tuesday, Aug. 18. Facilities money from 2008 has purchased such technological items as new computers and projectors. Also, some of the 2005 bond issue money was used to complete the final half of new carpeting at Bonner Springs and Edwardsville elementary schools.

Another positive change in the district will be the new freshman academy at BSHS, a program designed to ease the transition into later grades in high school for students who struggle in their freshman year.

“Where we see kids struggle the most is at the ninth-grade level,” Van Maren said, adding that 20 percent of students across the country fail two or more classes in their freshman year. “We’re trying to prevent the beginning of failures at the ninth-grade level.”

One change affecting school arrivals will most certainly be the construction going on around Kump and 138th Street. Students or parents dropping students off at the BSHS/Clark Middle School area will have to take Bluegrass instead of their normal route, and Van Maren suggests leaving about 10 minutes earlier in order to make it to school on time.

“Don’t try and make it exactly at 7:45 (a.m.), because you won’t make it,” he warned.

Van Maren said he anticipated all of the cutbacks for the year to culminate in a lack of quality of education in the schools, though he couldn’t say yet how much that quality would be reduced.

“We hope minimally,” Van Maren said. “I’m not naïve enough to think that there won’t be some instances where the extra help wouldn’t have provided better service. I would say yes, there’s gonna be an impact. We’re hoping the changes we’ve adjusted will allow us to do a good job all-around.”

Still, he said he was looking forward to the school year, no matter what.

“The only worries is with finance,” Van Maren said. “But the thing about our school district is we’re gonna do whatever we can for kids. We’re gonna make it work.”

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