AP, Honors Classes Critical to New Rochelle Schools

Advanced placement and honors classes are critical issues when it comes to the school budget.

That was one of the results of the New Rochelle School District budget survey released Wednesday.

Over 300 people completed the survey, down significantly from last year, according to district spokesman Paul Costiglio.

More than 61 percent of those taking the survey felt that preserving advanced placement and honors classes is essential to the district's mission.

In rating programs or parts of the educational system, people were asked to choose from 1) Essential and critical, 2) Very important, 3) Good to have, but not essential and 4) Not important enough to preserve in a time of fiscal constraint.

Regarding class size, 60.6 percent of responses said it was most important. Having up-to-date technology was most critical to 45.7 percent of responses.

Of the 300 people who completed the survey, almost 75 percent were parents or guardians of a school-age student and over 20 percent were community members who did not have a child in the schools.

Parents of elementary school children were heavily represented in the survey, with 69.2 percent indentifying themselves as such.

The school district will use the data gathered from the survey in upcoming 2013-14 budget discussions.

"We are delighted that once again so many members of the New Rochelle community took the time to fill out the survey," said Board President Chrisanne Petrone in a prepared statement. "The Board takes this feedback very seriously and looks forward to being further engaged with the community in the school budget process as our work on the 2013-14 school budget moves forward."

Live broadcasts and Web casts of the school budget review sessions will take place at 7 p.m. March 7, 12 and 14. The sessions will be held in library of the New Rochelle High School. They can be seen on Cablevision Channel 77, Verizon FIOS Channel 30 and the district's Web site.