Leonardo parents want more elementary teachers
BY JOSH DAVIDSON
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Leonardo Elementary School parents were expected to ask the district to place some of the seven additional teachers included in the proposed school budget at the school to help with classroom overcrowding.

A public hearing and board vote to adopt the district’s $119 million school budget, which includes seven new teaching positions to reduce class sizes at its schools, was scheduled for last night.

Victoria Diodato, a parent at the Leonardo Elementary School, said she planned to ask Superintendent of Schools David Witmer where the teachers will be assigned to at the board meeting. She hopes the district knows where they are going prior to the board’s vote on the budget.

The kindergarten, first- and third-grade classes at the school are overcrowded and some classes have 28 students, she said.

Leonardo’s Principal Kathleen Sidoti requested 3.5 teachers, which would adequately handle the crowding problem for a good amount of time, she said.

The district will not know where the seven teachers will go or how many will go to Leonardo until June, when student schedules for next year are finalized, Witmer said.

"I personally think that we will have one teacher at Leonardo," he said. "It does appear that at least one will be going there."

Most likely, two or three teachers will be added to the elementary schools, with most of the others going to the high schools, Witmer said. High School South has a larger crowding problem than High School North, so it will get more of the teachers, he said.

The seven teachers are enough to improve the overcrowding situation, he said.

"It’s just making sure that we put those seven teachers in the place that would have the most benefits," he said.

Diodato has one son in the third-grade of Leonardo, one daughter in the first grade, in a class with 26 other students, and two other children who will attend the school at some point. She said she wants to prevent what happened to her son from happening to her other children.

"My child has to eat his lunch at his desk," she said. "He can’t even eat in a cafeteria."

Leonardo’s parents will follow through until the situation is completely handled, she said.

"We’ve been quiet," she said. "We’ll keep attending every meeting. We’ll go to the board’s offices if we have to."

The school has the classroom space to handle the problem, but teachers need to be added, she said.

Diodato said she is thankful of the effort the board and Witmer have put toward addressing the situation, such as visiting Leonardo to assess the situation.

"It was wonderful that finally we had a superintendent who came to look at the [situation]," she said.

She is very thankful for the district’s work on the matter and quick responses to her phone calls and e-mails, but money needs to be put forth to address the crowding, she said.

Diodato said she does not think the space problems at Leonardo are more important than those at any other school.

Students at the school are not being given the opportunity to work in an environment conducive to learning, as conditions are crowded and there is no room for students to put their backpacks or coats, she said.

While Leonardo students perform well on their tests, improvement is always advantageous, she said. Better conditions may improve test scores.

"Kudos to the teachers for dealing with this for so long, but why can’t my son experience having a small class size," she said.

"I think the teachers are doing an outstanding job with what they have," she said.

While Diodato supports Middletown’s sports, adding teachers to the district’s schools should come before making improvements to its athletic fields, she said. However, improving crowding problems at the other schools is equally important as fixing the conditions at Leonardo, she said.

Parents from other elementary schools in the district, including the Lincroft and Harmony elementary schools, have requested that the board handle crowding problems where their children attend.

If passed by the board and the township’s residents, the budget will increase school taxes by 9.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.