Hollidaysburg Area School Board member Lois Kaneshiki, facing an uproar about her vote Wednesday that stopped approval of a kindergarten teaching position, went to Facebook on Thursday to say she did not equate kindergarten education with baby-sitting.

On her Blair County Republican Committee Facebook page, she posted:

“Altoona Mirror readers: Do NOT believe everything you read in the Mirror! The reporting is sub-par and distorting of the facts.”

In the official audio recording of the meeting available through a public right to know request to the district, Kaneshiki’s comments are clear.

“My daughter didn’t go to formal kindergarten, and she taught herself to read. I know not all children would do that, but I think we are spending the money for baby-sitting. It’s an awful lot of money. There are a lot of ways to take care of child management without paying that full salary,” the district’s recording shows Kaneshiki said at the meeting.

Superintendent Bob Gildea had recommended the board hire a long-term substitute teacher for one of Foot of Ten Elementary School’s four kindergarten classes. That measure would ensure the school’s four classes remain intact.

Currently, one of those classes is taught by a day-to-day substitute teacher at a rate of $90 per day.

Without adding a long-term substitute position whose entry level pay – $39,000 for a year or about $200 per day – the board may have to close the classroom and increase class sizes at the remaining three rooms to 24 students.

The result would be higher class sizes than in the district’s other two schools.

And 24 students in a class would make it difficult for teachers, students and parents to manage, Gildea said.

The vote on was 4-1 on Wednesday, and although she cast the only no vote, Kaneshiki’s vote caused the measure to fail.

District solicitor Carl Beard said that Section 508 of Pennsylvania school code required an affirmative vote of a majority of all nine members of the board for decisions involving fixing salaries for teachers. With only five board members present and four absent, Kaneshiki’s vote was crucial to achieve a five-member majority.

Reached by phone on Friday, she told the Mirror she did not equate kindergarten teachers with baby sitters.

“In no way did I say that at all. I thought your choice of words was absolutely misrepresentative of what I said. That’s what I’m getting this flack about.”

When her quote recorded on audio was read to her – “I think we are spending the money for baby-sitting” – she changed her stance.

“Those are my exact words?” she asked. “The kindergarten experience partially amounts to baby-sitting. In the end, that’s what part of it boils down to. And that’s how parents view it.”

During the meeting, she referred to “data” that supported her vote.

“From my understanding, the data does not support putting more money into younger grades because by the time they get to sixth and seventh grades, they all even out anyway,” Kaneshiki said after her vote Wednesday. She reiterated Friday that she would rather spend taxpayer money on a middle school teacher.

On her Facebook account, she posted a report where she got her data. The report was by the Department of Health and Human Services and was posted on the Homeschool Legal Defense Association’s website.

During the meeting, she suggested hiring classroom aides for three classrooms instead of increasing the pay for the fourth classroom teacher.

In the audio recording, Gildea responded directly to her comments.

“Three aides would cost significantly more than one longtime substitute teacher,” he said.

“And if you’ve been in a kindergarten classroom, there is a lot more to it than baby-sitting,” he said Wednesday.

Kaneshiki responded: “I’ve been in a kindergarten classroom.”

Gildea, for a second time, addressed her.

“Well, there is a lot more to it than baby-sitting,” Gildea said. “And a lot of the kids who are coming to us can’t teach themselves how to read because they don’t have a book in their house. That’s the plain facts.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.