An impassioned plea for School Committee and Town Council members to visit town classrooms before making any votes on school spending was accepted by town councilors Monday without comment.

The plea was made by Karen Rafanelli, a school employee who has worked for the benefit of education in various capacities, including as a Parent Teacher Organization president. “I keep hearing: ‘The numbers are down, enrollment is declining; we need to make cuts,” she wrote in a letter to the council that was published last week in the Jamestown Press. “I can understand to a degree some of this thinking, but I urge you not to forget the numbers who are still in our schools,” she said.

“How about we stop referring to them as numbers and remember to call them the children of Jamestown . . . . The students are more than just numbers.”

Rafanelli cited the advantages of smaller class sizes, and said that all students, from those learning at slow paces to those who are “high end learners,” are affected by decisions about class sizes.

She urged all town officials to visit classrooms, noting that they have been invited previously but have not responded.

Cathy Kaiser, chairwoman of the School Committee, was asked in an informal interview about the committee’s policy regarding class visits. She said state mandates dictate that members draw facts about the schools primarily from the superintendent. She said the members also draw information about the schools through liaisons to major school groups.

She listed the groups as including the Special Education Local Advisory Committee and the Facilities Committee as sources of information about the school community. She pointed out that members have children in the schools, and one is a teacher in an after-school art program.

Kaiser said members also derive added information through various school activities, including such events as the annual Report Night and Education Awareness Day.

Kaiser said that school board members appreciate invitations to visit classrooms and will do so informally as they are able, but some members are precluded from some visits because of their own work schedules.

“It is unjust to imply that members who do not make daytime class visits are uninformed,” Kaiser said.