District parents oppose 'Princeton Plan'
Facing tougher budget pressures, at least four Long Island school districts have recently floated the idea of clustering elementary school students by grade level rather than neighborhood as a way to save money.
The idea -- often loosely called the "Princeton Plan" -- has met resistance from parents in meetings in the North Bellmore, Bayport-Blue Point and Franklin Square districts. In Sayville, district officials are examining the pros and cons of a realignment.
Such proposals call for elementary schools to house one, two or three grades in each building, equalizing class sizes while paring down the teaching staff. Some districts call it "grade clustering."
School officials who have sought support for such proposals say they have few other cost-saving options as they face declining state aid, evaporating federal stimulus funding and a new 2 percent property tax cap.
But skeptical parents say teachers and administrators haven't made enough of a sacrifice from their own paychecks, and contend there's room for cuts elsewhere that wouldn't be as disruptive to their children's lives.
Such changes meet opposition in part because they mean the end of long-established neighborhood elementary schools that span several grades -- usually kindergarten through grades four, five or six. They also pose logistical hurdles.
Hundreds of people packed two recent district meetings in North Bellmore and in Bayport-Blue Point to oppose such plans. Many expressed concern that teachers in separate schools would have less opportunity to conveniently chat about how a child is progressing from one grade to the next, and they objected to siblings who are close in age attending different schools.
Both are small districts: North Bellmore is an elementary-school-only district, with fewer than 2,200 students in its six schools, and Bayport-Blue Point has an enrollment of about 2,500, according to the most recent figures available from the state Department of Education.
Parents push back
Stacey McCormack, whose two sons are in the North Bellmore district, said one of her boys would attend four schools in four years under the Princeton Plan. She said her eldest takes a long time to make new friends, and it would be jarring for him to be uprooted.
"I think it's emotional devastation to do that to children," she said. "They'd have no continuity of friendship, of teachers, of buildings. I think it underestimates the social and emotional impact on children."
Parents against the arrangement say they don't welcome the prospect of increased class sizes and worry that there is little academic benefit.
North Bellmore school officials, after the meeting, wouldn't say they've dropped the plan entirely, but that it's off the table for now. In Bayport-Blue Point, school officials said they recognize parents' concerns and would take those into consideration in further discussions.
The Princeton Plan started in Princeton, N.J., in 1948 as a way to desegregate the public schools. It meant that black children and white children -- who otherwise would have attended schools in their own, racially distinct neighborhoods -- would go to school together.
Most of the Long Island districts considering such proposals are doing so for cost savings.
In Franklin Square, parents pushed back when Superintendent Patrick Manley asked them last spring to consider the plan. The district ultimately decided to research the issue further and conduct a demographic study to help make a determination.
"I was very much a proponent of it," Manley said. "But I do see some of the concerns the parents had, and would not want to do something without being able to answer all of their questions first."
The plan is appealing because the district, which lost $700,000 in state aid last year, is looking to free up money to start prekindergarten and foreign-language programs, he said.
"Financially, we are in good shape," said Manley, adding that it has had no layoffs. "But the property tax cap could become a burden."
Some positive results
While parents in some districts are grappling with the concept for the first time, others are growing accustomed to the arrangement.
Island Trees made the switch last year, largely for cost reasons. Mineola, faced with declining elementary-school enrollment, is to complete its changeover next year. Several other districts -- Babylon, Commack, Garden City, Glen Cove, Locust Valley, Oyster Bay and Westbury, among others -- have lived with the setup for years, some of them for decades.
Garden City has three schools for kindergarten and first grade and two schools for grades two through five. Superintendent Robert Feirsen said the system has worked well, at least for the seven years he's been with the district.
"The primary schools are really unique buildings that are designed for young learners," he said. "Everything about them is at a scale that young children can appreciate. The furniture is small, there are lots of books around, the library has material only for them, the music program is designed for kids at that level."
He said, too, that the first-graders look forward to their "graduation" and see it as a rite of passage.
'It just made sense'
Island Trees moved from two schools that each held kindergarten through fourth grade to one school for kindergarten and first-graders, and another for grades two, three and four.
Superintendent Charles Murphy said the two schools are on the same grounds, so it didn't much affect school transportation.
He said the district, with its $56 million budget, was looking for ways to save cash and pursued the Princeton Plan for its financial benefit. Island Trees' enrollment, according to the most recent state figures available, is about 2,600.
Class sizes increased by just two or three students and it allowed the district to reduce its band and other instructors. Seven positions were shed in all, saving $550,000 per year, he said.
"We are a small place and it just made sense," Murphy said. "The kids adjusted well. We were in the hole and that really got us out of it. It worked out well for us. The staff didn't go crazy, the parents were supportive . . . and there really weren't any huge hiccups."
Therese O'Loughlin, a fourth-grade teacher at Island Trees, said the children adjusted faster than the teachers, who were saddened to part from colleagues of 30 years' standing who moved to another building.
As for students being forced to navigate a new building at a young age, she said they pass easily from one school to the next; they visit each other multiple times a year.
"The first-graders come over and spend time with the second-graders and they have buddy plans with the . . . [students] at the other school," she said.
Mineola Superintendent Michael Nagler, describing the change in that district, said, "In practice, it is replicating a middle school and high school for elementary grades." The district has about 2,500 students.
Next September, when Mineola finishes its grade-clustering switches, students who used to be spread among five elementary schools -- one primary center with prekindergarten and kindergarten, and four schools with grades one through five -- will be in two schools that hold prekindergarten through second grade, and one school with grades three and four.
In addition, fifth-graders were moved into the middle school, and eighth-graders were moved into the high school.
Two elementary schools are being put to other uses -- one is being leased to Solomon Schechter Day School, and a lease arrangement is in the works for another.
Cultural diversity cited
While bottom-line considerations are at the heart of most Island districts' considerations of the Princeton Plan, the superintendent of the Westbury school district spoke highly of the cultural diversity it fosters.
Constance Clark-Snead said the plan allows her students -- roughly 67 percent are Hispanic and most others are African-American or of Caribbean heritage -- to mix. The district has about 4,000 students.
"It has worked out well for us," she said.
Francine Santoro, principal of the Gribbin Elementary School in Glen Cove, said students there have had a similar experience. The district has kindergarten, first and second grades in two schools, and students in the third, fourth and fifth grades in two other schools.
The isolation of small children from older, savvier peers helps preserve the younger students' innocence and fosters friendships across the racial and ethnic lines that can divide older students, she said.
"Glen Cove is one of the most diverse communities on Long Island," she said. "Even with the things they bring to lunch -- one might bring hummus, another a salami sandwich. They are just very accepting of one another and of their differences."
With Joie Tyrrell
The Princeton Plan
What it does: assigns students to elementary schools by grade level instead of geography. For example, a school could hold grades K through first or K through second districtwide, while others hold grades two through five or three through five. This eliminates traditional K through five neighborhood schools.
Origin: Created in Princeton, N.J., in 1948 as a way to desegregate public schools.
Pros: Cost savings because fewer teachers are needed; more student diversity by ethnicity and race; ability to foster a more unified approach to teaching of grades assigned to one school; equalized class sizes.
Cons: Higher transportation costs; separation of siblings who otherwise would be at the same school; logistical problems for parents with school drop-offs and pickups; parents' concern about teacher lack of communication when children move from one school to another; loss of the traditional neighborhood school.
