LONGMEADOW – Williams Middle School could lose three teaching positions at the eighth grade level.

This was a decision that was made when drawing up the budget for fiscal year 2018 due to one factor – a decrease in enrollment across both middle schools in Longmeadow.

“Given other needs that we have for FY18 and given the enrollment patterns that we’re seeing, we really couldn’t justify the retention of those three positions,” Longmeadow Superintendent of Schools M. Martin O’ Shea told Reminder Publications.

 According to information from the FY18 budget, the average class size at Williams Middle School for eighth grade is currently 21.6, with the size of each classroom ranging from 17 to 24.

“We will be able to schedule the school without those three positions and we’ll still be able to maintain class size patterns that are consistent with what we have at Glenbrook, and consistent with what Longmeadow has sort of come to expect over the years,” said O’Shea.

The three positions that Williams Middle School will be losing is going to cut across four core disciplines – English, social studies, math, and science.

“The positions belong to teachers that are held in high regard and widely respected but given some other goals that we had, we couldn’t justify keeping those positions,” said O’Shea.

Another plan for the budget is to bring in full-time adjustment counselors.

These full-time positions would be upgraded from existing part-time or “60 percent” positions that adjustment counselors already have at the middle schools, which means the full-time people in those positions would be upgraded from the existing part-time adjustment counselors.

“In some respects, this decision represents a reallocation,” said O’Shea. “We felt like we would be serving our students more effectively by addressing the behavioral and social needs we’re seeing among students.”

In addition to the two adjustment counselors (one at each middle school) there is also a guidance counselor at each school. According to O’Shea, while the duties of a guidance counselor and an adjustment counselor might overlap, there are some key differences.

 “A guidance counselor might be more oriented towards a student’s academic plan and yet they’re still supporting students behaviorally,” said O’ Shea. “An adjustment counselor might have a smaller caseload that supports the specific needs of a smaller group of students.”

According to O’Shea, another key item addressed in the FY18 budget is technology. Discussion at a Finance Committee meeting in Longmeadow debated various options from the pros and cons of iPads and ChromeBooks to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), the latter of which was dismissed due to the amount of confusion that could possibly ensue from IT issues occurring on different devices and the expertise that would have been needed of the teachers to fix IT issues encountered by students.

According to information from the FY18 budget, MacBooks are another device used by the schools in Longmeadow.

“We let the curriculum and the educational goals drive the decisions that we make on devices,” said O’ Shea.