Some paraprofessionals dismissed last month may be included in the hiring process.
WESTFIELD — The School Department will use a Massachusetts kindergarten grant to hire as many as 24 paraprofessionals before the start of the 2012-2013 school year.
That hiring could include re-hiring some of the dozen paraprofessionals dismissed at the close of the classes last month, Superintendent of Schools Suzanne Scallion and interim human services director Charles E. Tetrault said.
Suzanne ScallionThe $230,000 grant is awarded to enhance the city’s full-day kindergarten program offered at the city’s eight elementary schools.
Scallion said letters will be sent to all previous paraprofessionals notifying them of the 24 open positions. Any person rehired must meet qualifications required to assist kindergarten teachers in classroom instruction, Tetrault said.
Paraprofessionals, depending on qualifications, are paid a salary range from about $8.95 to $20 per hour.
Full-day kindergarten classes started here in 2003.
Last month, in additional to paraprofessionals, 23 teachers were notified of potential layoff because of a projected $860,000 shortfall in the department’s fiscal 2013 budget.
Scallion said administration continues to assess its instructional staffing needs for the new school year. She was unable to determine if an how many teachers might be rehired for the school year that begin Aug. 29.
Westfield has about 640 teachers.
“We are continuing to target student-teacher ratios of 20 students per teacher in grades kindergarten to grade three and 24 in grades four though 12,” she said.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said an $890,000 increase in state funding to the city will “help ease the number of layoffs within the School Department.”
But school officials said Chapter 70 state education funding has increased only about $350,000 which was already accounted for in budget planning for the new school year. The new school budget amounts to $54.4 million, an increase of about $2 million over last year’s budget.
