Over 25 members of the town’s four volunteer fire departments attended a recent Board of Education meeting to speak up for a firefighting course at the high school that won’t be returning for 2018-19.
The course, offered since 2012, was cut from the curriculum because only nine students have signed up for it, School Superintendent Brian Benigni said.
With two teacher cuts at the high school built into next year’s budget, the district decided that only classes with more than 12 students can run.
The district tries to have teachers teach 90 to 100 students across the five classes their assigned to, and below 12 in one class would prevent teachers from reaching that goal, Benigni said.
The two teachers cut were a tech-ed teacher, who taught the firefighting program, and an art teacher.
“Where are we steering these students?” asked Jim Simons, a former Berlin fire chief, during the public comment portion of the April 23 meeting.
He said the lack of advertising and marketing of tech-ed programs had led to enrollment declines.