Ables program to be trimmed

The Able Learner program for gifted students in the Central Valley School District has been trimmed in the current round of budget cuts, which has some parents and teachers hopping mad.

The Ables program, as it is known, gathers students in grades 2 through 5 from all over the district to Opportunity Elementary School one day a week for advanced work and projects. There are three classrooms with two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher. Next year there will only be two full-time teachers in two classrooms. The number of incoming second-graders will be reduced and fifth-graders will have their time in the program cut in half, coming for only two eight-week blocks during the school year.

Parents are upset about the program changes and that they weren’t told anything until the changes had been approved by the board of directors. Matt Gibson was one of several parents, teachers and students who spoke against the cuts at the most recent board meeting. Gibson, who was an Ables student himself, has a 7-year-old son in the program. “It just kills me to see a program like that get reduced,” he said. “I didn’t even know about this until last weekend.”

Gibson said he enjoyed his time in the program. “It was a real opportunity,” he said. “I certainly didn’t know that at the time, being a stupid kid and all.” He’s already seen how the program has improved his son’s learning. “I’ve seen him grow as a student because of it. Able Learners is actually making him think about things in a different way. It’s pushing him, which is a good thing.”

Ables teacher Joan Dunham said she and other teachers were kept in the dark about the changes. They knew something was going on when paperwork stopped going out to parents. When she asked Opportunity Principal Molly Carolan what was happening, Dunham said she was told that the principals had to sign a secrecy agreement that forbade them from discussing budget cuts with staff or risk being fired. “They were given a gag order,” Dunham said. “That is no way to run a school district, to keep information from parents and teachers.”

Jean Marczynski, executive director of learning and teaching, said the school administrators have to know that the budget suggestions they make will be kept confidential. “We have to have some very candid conversations,” she said. “We ask everyone in the room to keep things confidential.”

Dunham said the program teachers were asked to look for ways to save money and came up with some that included consolidating transportation and cutting back the number of screening tests, which cost $60 each. Destination Imagination, a special competition, was eliminated. “That should have been enough,” she said. “I think we have been hit so much more severely than other programs.”

Part of the Ables program is paid for by a state grant, which provided $105,000 for the 2007-08 school year. That will increase to $111,000 next year. The district contributed $104,500 for the 2007-08 school year out of levy money and plans to cut that to $76,000 next year.

Marczynski admits that the amount saved looks small and some might think it would be easy to find the money somewhere else. “Every single reduction could say the same thing,” she said. “You have to add all those up.”

Nearly two dozen parents attended a meeting Monday to discuss the program changes. Parent Cara Ambriz wrote in an e-mail that “passions ran high” at the meeting. “It is clear from (Monday’s) meeting that the parents and teachers would have been more eager to have helped the district reach a more mutually satisfying compromise, yet no one, not even the amazing Able Learner teachers, was consulted,” she wrote.

District spokeswoman Melanie Rose and board member Anne Long attended the meeting. “My overall impression was that the majority of the people were reasonable and really just wanted some information,” said Long. “Some were upset. Some were a little frustrated that they didn’t know what was going on.”

During the meeting a parent asked about getting a presentation on the changes from the board. Long said she is working to set up a meeting. “I thought that was a reasonable request.”

Long said it’s too soon to know if the district will look at trying to restore the cuts to the program. “I don’t even know that I can answer that,” she said. “Before we even go there, we need to make sure these people have the information they want.”

Both Dunham and Sharon Sell, the coordinator of the middle school gifted program, are retiring. They are upset about several documents the district has recently sent around to teachers and parents that say the program is being improved by the changes. “It’s a slap in our faces, that what we’re doing isn’t working,” Sell said.

The documents also refer to the changes allowing the program to “better align with curriculum, teaching practices and assessment in coordination with enhancements to the Able Learner program.” Dunham said she was never told that what she was teaching didn’t match the curriculum. “It’s total news to us,” she said.

Dunham said she would not be speaking out about the changes if she wasn’t retiring for fear of retribution. “I care so much about these kids and parents,” she said. “I’ve burned every bridge. It’s not about us. It’s about our kids.”