The Valley Reporter - Pre-K rule has almost expired

I would like Rule 2600 to provide that all school budgets separate the number of students and cost enrolled in Pre-K from the cost of students enrolled in K through six, who make up the actual per pupil count and the student-teacher ratio.

Warren has 121 equalized pupils projected for the '08-09 school year, but in the annual report the school board combines the total students, including Pre-K, totaling 154, to justify additional spending of nearly $100,000 including adding another teacher. This leads taxpayers to believe that the population of full-time students is rising, when it is declining. There is no guarantee that the three- and four-year-olds will eventually become K through six students in the same school, so it is deceiving to include them in the pupil count and teacher-pupil ratio.

Adding this provision to Rule 2600 will add some transparency to the spending and prevent this kind of subterfuge by school boards.

It is almost impossible to muster enough votes to defeat a school budget, since those who pay the bill are all working and unable to attend Town Meeting. Transparency in spending would help alert those who could attend be more prepared to comment at Town Meeting in the hope of swaying the vote.

James E. Parker
Warren

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