By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
A Hays mom says she isn’t willing to “wager” on her children’s education and is taking them out of the USD 489 school district, deciding instead to home-school until “the rest of the school stuff plays out.”
The “school stuff” that Kendra McBride, 35, Hays, is most concerned about is the school board’s agreement in the spring for the non-renewal of 16 teaching contracts due to lack of funds and a $1 million-plus budget shortfall.
McBride and her husband have three children. The youngest will be starting kindergarten, the middle child will be starting fourth grade.
McBride’s oldest child is 11, and she will be going to Hays Middle School, but both McBride and her husband do not believe their youngest two children will be well-served in large classrooms.
McBride said her 9-year-old was going to start fourth grade at O’Loughlin Elementary.
“We absolutely loved O’Loughlin. We have been there for the last four years, and the kids have flourished there,” said McBride. “It has been wonderful, but the increase in class size for the fourth graders (is a concern). … He was struggling in a class of 22 students and with an amazing teacher who went over the top and helped with everything.”
McBride said her mind is made up for the upcoming school year, but hopes to get both her youngest kids back into the school district in the next two years, “once the dust settles and the class sizes get smaller.”
“We are hoping classroom size will decrease because the fact is, that obviously larger classrooms make it more difficult for a teacher to teach and for students to learn,” McBride said. “It also puts that much more stress on the teacher to make sure they are helping the kids who do struggle.”
McBride said the district did offer the option of moving her son to Lincoln Elementary, which offered a smaller fourth-grade class, but McBride said her son would be stressed about moving to a new school and a new environment, and they do not want to hamper the progress he has already made.
“We feel like, at this point, we would be betting, hoping, (the schools) will have a good enough education … it is not something we want to bet on. We want to know our kids are getting a good education,” McBride said. “And, up until now, we felt that way.”
McBride said, “It’s not just me,” as she has talked with others in the community about the larger classroom sizes and says many others are just as concerned.
“It is a really hard decision because these are our kids and it is their education … the most important thing we can do,” she said.
However, McBride said it will not be hard decision for her to vote yes for the upcoming local option budget election, asking voters to increase the LOB from 30 percent to 31 percent, adding approximately $200,000 to the district’s budget.
Mail-in ballots were sent to more than 31,000 people in the community today and should arrive in mailboxes Wednesday.
“My hope is we approve the LOB and we can get that added funding,” McBride said. “The school board is going to need that extra funding, not just this year, but every year.”
McBride also knows the LOB increase will affect everyone in the community but, “in the long run, obviously, paying a little bit of money now is a lot better than our students falling behind down the road.”
The deadline to return ballots is noon June 27.
The board has said if the LOB measure is approved, the district’s No. 1 priority is rehiring more teachers to help reduce elementary class sizes.
Should the measure be approved by voters, the Legislature has given the school board the right to increase the LOB to either 32 percent or 33 percent for one year, after which it would revert to 31 percent.
For more on the LOB mail-in ballot, click HERE.