Dear Duffy Families, 

The West Harford Board of Ed presented their proposed budget on March 4, 2025. Details of the budget can be seen at the Board of Ed Budget Information webpage. Included in this budget are reductions that will directly affect our students at Duffy and districtwide. Across the district these reductions include teacher position cuts which will result in larger class sizes, special education teacher cuts, and Quest teacher reductions. These reductions combined will result in increased workload and stress for our classroom teachers and less support for our students. 

Class Sizes (see projected class enrollment data for Fall 2025 here)

• District Guidelines

• District guidelines allow for 23:1 student/teacher ratio in grades K-3, and 27:1 student/teacher ratio in grades 4-5. Last year (2024-25), the district used 23:1 guidelines for grades K-3 and 25:1 for grades 4-5 to create class sections. This year, the district is holding firm on their district guidelines to create class sections. 

• How it affects us at Duffy

• We are projected to have 16 more students next year (489 students currently to 505 projected), but we will have one less class section (from 24 class sections currently to 23). 

• Our projected class size average will be the largest in the district at 22 students/class

• Class sizes will range from 21-24 students/class. The projected class sizes for each grade are the following: 

• Kindergarten - 4 sections of 22 students/class; Grade 1 - 4 sections of 21-22 students/class; Grade 2 - 4 sections of 22 students/class (currently 5 sections of 17-18 students/class); Grade 3 - 4 sections of 22 students/class (currently 5 sections of 17-18 students/class); Grade 4 - 4 sections of 21-22 students/class; Grade 5 - 3 sections of 23-24 students/class

• How it affects elementary students districtwide

• The district is projected to have 20 fewer students districtwide, and will have 5 fewer class sections. As a result, there will be 5 teachers cut districtwide (from 201 currently to 196)

• With the increase in student/teacher ratio to 27:1 students/class used this year to create class sections, there will be 5 classes of 27 students/class, and 7 sections of 26 students/class. These are the highest class sizes (disregarding remote learning Covid year 2020-21) that our district has seen since 2012. See table here for data. 

Special Education Services

• The budget is proposing to cut 2 special education positions. It is unclear where these positions will be cut. 

• 1 in 5 students (20%) receive special ed services, and this number rises each year. 

Quest

• The budget proposal includes a reduction in Quest teachers districtwide from 8.70 teachers to 8.00 teachers to service 503 students districtwide. This results in 1.40 less teachers since 2022. 

These budget cuts will only add to our teacher’s already full workloads, and make meeting our student’s needs all the more difficult. ALL of our students are affected by these issues, please make your voice heard!

• Send an email to our Superintendent and Board of Ed members voicing your concerns. Email addresses are paul_vicinus@whps.org boardmembers@whps.org, and budget@whps.org

• Attend and speak at a future BOE meeting, or follow the meetings online to stay informed. 

• The Board of Ed will have a Public Hearing on the Budget on Tuesday, March 26 at 7pm at Town Hall (50 South Main Street, Legislative Chamber, room 314). 

• The Board of Ed is scheduled to adopt the Superintendent’s 2024-25 Budget on Tuesday, April 1, 2024 at 7pm at Town Hall. Each of these meetings will have public comment at the beginning of the meeting for 3 minutes/speaker.

• Community Conversation sessions with public officials will be held on Monday, March 31st at 8:45am at the Faxon Branch Library and at 6pm at the Noah Webster Library. Public officials, including Mayor Shari Cantor, Deputy Mayor Ben Wenograd, Board of Education Chair Dr. Lorna Thomas-Farquharson, and Vice Chair Shannon Marimón, will respond to questions.

Thank you for your time and for your continued advocacy of our wonderful WHPS (and Duffy) teachers and leaders.