As a town resident and a kindergarten teacher for the past 16 years, I would like to take this opportunity to ask again that the School Committee reconsider the potential cutting of the kindergarten aide positions in next year’s school budget. I have thought about this issue for the past few weeks and one of my foremost questions is how did this particular budget issue ever make it to the bottom of the heap when the new state monies became available? Cutting the kindergarten aides affects an entire grade level across the town. It will have a direct, negative impact upon the academic programs and services we offer to our kindergarten students. It will also directly affect the social and emotional supports we can put in place. There will not be that extra staff member there in the classroom to offer encouragement to those who need a boost, or to help mediate those friend-making issues that kindergarten students are learning, or to help implement behavior plans that are structured to aid students who may be struggling to comply with the expectations of kindergarten. The list goes on and on. And this is without mentioning the safety and crowd-control concerns that are inherent in dealing with very young children. 
It is important to consider that we are talking about $55,000. For this relatively small amount of money in the scope of the school ($45 million ) budget, we receive the services of five trained professionals who offer academic support to our vulnerable kindergarten students. I believe these aides all work 25 hours a week. That’s five practically full time staff members. This is an amazingly economical use of our money. Last year, when kindergarten art was cut to every other week, the kindergarten staff was not pleased. But there was no major outcry. Things needed to be cut. This cut did take away from the kindergarten program, but it was one we could work around. Cutting the kindergarten aides is not something we can work around. This is an irreplaceable loss to our program and to our students. 
I find myself wondering how I can come to terms with this next year, how I can accept that our program will not be as good. No matter how hard I work, I cannot make up for the loss of our aide. No matter how hard I work, I cannot provide the same services and program for my students. My personal question is can I live with this or should I leave kindergarten? A far more important question is can we all live with this? Can we truly agree that such a valuable and economical program be left out of the budget? Is this really the budget item that should be left out, waiting for possible grant monies to appear? 
Again, I respectfully ask that the kindergarten aide positions be funded within the school budget.

-Kathy Gaphardt