The Iroquois School Board agreed to add an elementary teaching position this fall after test results showed students at one of its schools lagged behind the others.
Mary Jo Dudek, assistant superintendent for curriculum, said at a board meeting this week that third-grade achievement at Marilla Elementary didn't match that of Elma and Wales elementary schools.
"Last year's data shows that students at the current grade level are not consistent across the district.
"Adding an instructor is a proactive step," she said.
The move would give the teachers the ability to work in small groups and help close the gap. Dudek said the low assessments were in reading and literacy.
Superintendent Douglas Scofield noted that, at about 23 students per teacher, third-grade class size at Marilla Elementary has been near the district's preferred ceiling of 24 students. He said that with three teachers now covering the 47 third-graders at the school, class size would shrink to between 14 and 18 pupils per teacher.
Although no one has been hired yet, Scofield said he would be consulting the "preferred" hiring list of teachers recently laid off from the district to fill the post.
In other matters:
. A group of parents seeking to have their children bused to a private high school in Buffalo asked the School Board to bend a rule that requires public schools to transport local students only to any school within a 15-mile radius.
The residents want service to Buffalo Seminary, which is just outside of that limit.
One mother of a Buffalo Seminary student claimed that her neighbors' children get bused to Nardin Academy and Canisius High School and said it would not cost the district taxpayers any more for the bus to make an extra stop in that neighborhood.
The superintendent said he would check with the transportation director and school attorneys on the matter, then refer it to the board.
. Scofield announced that the graduation rate for Iroquois High School this year had climbed to 100 percent.
"It's phenomenal for a public school," the superintendent said. "I don't know of another school like ours that has that rate."