A Tale of Two Schools

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Of 222 school districts in the state, Lebanon ranks near the top, number 14 in terms of the amount of money it spends per pupil.
Salem ranks at 206.
In 2003-2004, Lebanon spent 5,000 dollars more than Salem for every elementary student – and that doesn’t include transportation, technology, out of district tuition and capital costs.
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In a first grade classroom at Salem's Lancaster Elementary School, children are learning about insects.
There are no individual desks here; instead children sit in groups at small tables, where they make bumblebees out of construction paper.
Teacher Marie Garfield says she’d like to see more money spent on basic supplies.
"books, glue, tape, pencils, sometimes we order a little less quality because we're concerned about the bottom line, and sometimes it makes sense to spend a little more money and use higher quality products"

Each year, the principal gives classroom teachers in grades one through five, a 125 dollar budget for classroom supplies.
But Garfield says if she were given an extra five-thousand dollars per student, about 100-thousand dollars total, supplies aren’t the only thing she’d buy.
"The first thing I would do is organize the classroom in such a way that all of the furniture matched, I would also have storage closets where everything could be put away so that there are not bins and boxes and things hanging out"

Space seems to be a huge issue for Lancaster School.
It’s a Title one school, meaning it gets federal funds to help needier, low-income students.
Principal Edith Soley says it’s difficult to find enough room for kids that need extra help.
She points to the hallway.
"This Title One area is a probably an eight by ten foot area that’s outside a classroom, it’s an area in the corridor that’s deadspace, so we made it useable space."

Last year, Soley says the school’s part time art teacher used a custodial closet as her office, pushing her supplies from classroom to classroom on a cart.
The part time music teacher uses the closet as well.
"This is the custodial closet, I moved the custodian out and gave him a smaller closet, and downstairs I moved the custodian out and made a guidance office, so you prioritize who needs what space."

But Soley says despite the cramped quarters, if she had an extra 100-thousand dollars per classroom, she’d spend it on hiring more teachers.
"One of the things I would do would be able to have a full time art, music, PE teacher, and reading specialist. Right now we’re lucky we share them with just one other building, but I do share them."

Better supplies, more teachers, and more space -- despite what may seem like a myriad of ways more money would help, Principal Edith Soley says limited resources hasn’t limited her students' education.
"I've never been denied anything that is important for children to have."

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Across the state, at Mount Lebanon Elementary School in Lebanon, children are busy playing capture the flag during recess.
The Kindergarten through 3rd grade school has about the same number of students as Salem’s Lancaster School.
But rather than the 72-hundred dollar cost per student in Salem, Lebanon spends 12-thousand 400 dollars per student.
Marti Hunt is Principal.
"This district is incredibly supportive of its students and I should say the community is very supportive of the school district."

Teachers here are proud that they have small class sizes – just 15 to 17 students.
And 2nd grade teacher Mary Davidson doesn’t complain about having enough space.
"it’s pretty much open space, there’s a meeting place, there’s a couple of tables we can gather in small groups for instruction, there are two computers set up."

Every child also has a desk.
And while Davidson’s classroom budget is four times more than teachers have at Salem’s Lancaster School, she says it’s still not much.
I use a lot of my own personal money in the classroom, basically I have 500 dollars to spend on materials and that’s taken up by paper and pencils and draft books and colored crayons and the basics

Davidson says if she had to cut 100-thousand dollars, to get down to what Salem spends, cutting materials wouldn’t help much.
we’d have to either get rid of all the paraprofessionals for 100-thousand or they’d have to get rid of at least one or two teachers, which means your class size goes up.

Mount Lebanon has about 11 teaching assistants.
The school tries to make sure each teacher gets one.
And unlike Lancaster Elementary in Salem, Mount Lebanon has a full-time gym teacher.
Both the music and art teacher are shared with other schools, but each have their own room.
Principal Marti Hunt says cutting 100-thousand dollars would likely mean less staff.
One of the first things that might happen is that we’d lose classroom teachers and our class sizes would increase that would be an unfortunate decision but that’s what it would look like if we were faced with a real reduction in funds

The school also has a few special programs like an “artist in residence” and a visiting author program.
And each grade gets at least two field trips a year.
But Principal Marti Hunt says those budget items are small.
She says the school could cut all new textbooks, software equipment, furniture and field trips, and still only save 30-thousand dollars.
"so even if we look at those items that are sometimes considered discretionary or items that you could manipulate a little bit, you’re really not looking at a large enough sum to take care of a 100-thousand dollar deduction."

Hunt says despite the fact that Lebanon spends more per student than 208 other school districts in the state, she says there’s not a lot of fluff in Mount Lebanon Elementary’s budget.
I think we have an excellent program but I don’t think we’re at all wasteful I don’t think we’re putting large budget items in there for our community to pick up.

A visit to both schools doesn’t reveal huge discrepancies when it comes to a child’s basic education.
While space is an issue at one school, teacher salaries and test scores are comparable.
And both schools appear to be getting the job done with the money that’s spent.
The difference may come in those little extras that are often hit when school board’s cut their budget – things like music, art, and physical education.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.