By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

A plan to move an abandoned greenhouse from the Salina Area Technical School to Salina South High School was approved Tuesday night by the Salina School Board, opening the way for several different classes to make use of it starting next year.

The 900-foot greenhouse hasn't been used for several years, and staff at South High have been talking about having a greenhouse "since I came on the scene nine years ago," South Principal Myron Graber told the board.

He said plans are for numerous classes -- including science, special education, family and consumer science and business -- to use it in various ways.

"If we can do this on site, it would be an awesome program," Graber said.

Special education teacher Ardis Pritchett said her program works to expose students to a wide variety of experiences, but that transporting students around town for that "is a daunting task."

"With a greenhouse, we can do that right outside our door," she said, adding one plan in the works is for an annual spring plant sale, which would give students experience in areas such as customer service.

Plans are for the greenhouse to be moved to a location on the east side of the school, about halfway between the building and the baseball fields, at an estimated cost of $35,000. About half of that cost will be paid out of federal vocational-education funds.

Board member Mike Wilson was the only one to vote against the plan, saying he was concerned it might fall into disuse after a few years. He also questioned whether the plant sale would compete with local businesses. Phil Black also had some concerns about whether the greenhouse would continue to be used long-term but voted for the plan.

Grooming teachers

Board members also were reservedly supportive of a proposal to add an additional class to what's now a one-year program to prepare high school students to go into the teaching profession.

This past fall, South High initiated an introduction to teaching class, which had nine students enrolled. Of those nine, five are graduating -- three of those plan to major in education in college -- and four are interested in taking that second proposed class, which involves each working regularly in the classroom alongside a teacher somewhere in the district.

Katy Vinson, who teaches the class, said 14 students are enrolled in the first-year class for next year.

Board members generally were supportive of the proposal, but several questioned whether they could justify a class for such a small number of students.

Any early opportunity to find out firsthand about teaching would likely help with retaining teachers later, said board member Pat Grimwood, noting that many teachers leave the profession in their first few years.

Board President Carol Brandert said that considering budget constraints, she thought it might be tough to justify such small classes, but that "I have to balance that against the good that comes from this."

Vinson said the second-year teaching internship class would be taught at the same time as her regular on-the-job training class, so it wouldn't just be a four-student class.

The proposal to add the internship class is scheduled to be voted on by the board at its May 27 meeting.

Too little, too big?

The board also discussed class sizes that are too large.

Superintendent Rob Winter said that because of several complaints about class sizes, from both parents and administrators in some elementary schools this past year, he plans to add seven new elementary school teachers for the coming school year.

Doing so, he said, should keep class sizes within the target range -- 16-22 students for kindergarten and first grade, 18-24 for second and third grade, and 19-26 for fourth and fifth grades.

To accomplish that while staying in budget, he said, 24 teachers' aide positions will be cut, though every person affected is being offered similar jobs throughout the district or in the Central Kansas Cooperative in Education.

"This didn't come without a cost," Winter said, adding that the positions cut were mostly aide positions intended to help deal with large class sizes.

In addition, Winter said, he and district staff were working on guidelines to set minimum enrollments for elective classes offered only once during the school day in the secondary schools.

He said seven classes now have enrollments of under 10, and that the new minimum likely would be 14 or 15.

Winter also outlined to the board plans to reorganize the district's top administration, with human resources director A.J. D'Angelo becoming deputy superintendent, while retaining most human resources responsibilities.