Parents sound off about class sizes
Board urges patience; district officials say numbers could still change between now and start of school
Parents of students at several North Penn School District schools are raising concerns about class sizes in the coming school year, and district officials are asking them to wait until the numbers shake out.
“We do have a few hot spots we’re watching. Not one class is over our guidelines, not one class, but there are some at the top of our guidelines, and we’re watching,” said school board President Vince Sherpinsky.
Roughly a dozen parents, mostly of elementary school students, spoke during the public comment portion of Thursday night’s school board meeting about the notices they’ve received over the last few days, and class sizes they say look likely to be too large when school starts on Aug. 29.
“Gwyn Nor has three grades
“Our students deserve better. We, the taxpayers, have come out, not only in droves now, but in 2014. This is what we want. We’re not asking for much: we’re asking to give our children a chance, with smaller classroom sizes.” — Danielle Blanchard of North Wales
that look to be either near or at the cap of students that are allowed in a class,” said Heather Sand, mother of an incoming second grader at Gwyn Nor Elementary.
“For second grade, I’ve been told that (enrollment) is 75 — in three classes, that’s 25 per class. The cap is 26, so that leaves just three students to reach the max. That is not only possible, but it’s really probable: three students, just on the second grade level, at any time in the year,” she said.
North Penn’s current classroom size guidelines are set forth on board policy 6151, which was last revised in 2011 and sets forth guidelines that kindergarten classes contain 22 to 25 students, first through third grades contain 23 to 26, and fourth through sixth grades contain 25 to 29 students.
Danielle Blanchard of North Wales said her daughter’s sixth-grade class at North Wales Elementary is currently slated to have 29 students, just below the district maximum guideline of 30 students for fourth through sixth grades that parents have asked the district
to reconsider before.
“Our students deserve better. We, the taxpayers, have come out, not only in droves now, but in 2014. This is what we want. We’re not asking for much: we’re asking to give our children a chance, with smaller classroom sizes,” she said, before giving the board a petition from parents asking for smaller class sizes.
Amy Locco of Lansdale said Bridle Path Elementary has heard that their fourth-grade class will be dropping from four classrooms to three, and gave the board another petition, asking that the four classes be restored.
“As parents, we want to make sure the teachers have the necessary tools to perform their job without complications, and be able to focus on what’s important, which is education our children,” she said.
And Jennifer Hall, whose four children have all attended Bridle Path, said she knows from her experience teaching in another district what a difference smaller class sizes can make.
“When you’re teaching a child, the most important thing you can do for that child is make that connection. If you don’t have that connection with your students,
you miss out on so much,” she said.
“They miss out on so much, and if you have 29 students in your class, some with a lot of unique needs, there is no way you are going to be able to make the connection that you need to,” Hall said.
Christine Haley-Brinen of Lansdale said her son will be entering fourth grade at Knapp Elementary in two weeks, and when she checked his registration information on Wednesday, a teacher’s name was displayed, but checking again on Thursday there was no name.
“We don’t know. We never know. Why don’t I know? Why don’t you know? Why don’t you plan? It is a week and a half. What is happening? How is it so drastic at Knapp Elementary that we don’t have a teacher in the fourth grade? Why is this so hard? Is it incompetence? Is this negligence?” she said.
Superintendent Curt Dietrich said he could discuss specific situations with individual parents, but the district is still waiting for last-minute student enrollments to finalize some teacher assignments.
“Human resources is a complicated matter. People get assigned to other positions, some people leave for other reasons, some people get sick,” he said.
Sherpinsky said the district currently has six teachers with assignments still undetermined, who could be sent to schools where the class sizes come closest to the maximums set forth in the district guidelines.
“Dr. Dietrich has six people in abeyance, to be assigned
before the beginning of the school year, and he’s watching the classes that are coming close to our maximum limit. That’s the reason why he’s kind of waiting,” Sherpinsky said.
“The biggest challenge is, it’s impossible for me to plan for a decision that hasn’t been made yet. If somebody decides to move into the district at the last minute, none of my planning is going to matter, if they come into the school district and don’t tell anybody until the last day,” he said.
Incoming students can
still register through the coming week, Sherpinsky said, and some even arrive at their schools on the first day.
“We have 20-plus appointments, and always get people who show up on the first day of school and say ‘I never registered.’ Last year we had seven of them, and four happened to be in a hot spot, which made it worse,” he said.
Last year’s space concerns were tempered somewhat by an unexpected decrease at one school, where several students who had been registered turned out
to have moved out of the district without notifying officials.
“What happened was, we were at the max of our limits, we were panicking, whether we were going to deal with it. We started the school year, and 11 kids didn’t show up, in that one class. Ta-da, no problems now,” Sherpinsky said.
Several parents asked the district to communicate more with parents about how and when the classroom size decisions are finalized, and Rebecca Fahrmeier of North Wales
“Dr. Dietrich has six people in abeyance, to be assigned before the beginning of the school year, and he’s watching the classes that are coming close to our maximum limit. That’s the reason why he’s kind of waiting,” — Vince Sherpinsky, North Penn School Board president
pointed out that when Dietrich asked parents to contact their local legislators to oppose a state bill, they did so.
“When Dr. Dietrich sent an email asking for people to call their representatives, for the assessment bill to be changed, we did, and it did make a difference,” she said.
“Please, improve the communication. Tell us what you need. Tell us what you need us to do. Let us get the word out,” Fahrmeier said.
Board member Ed Diasio asked if there was a board consensus to revisit the current class size guidelines, likely through the board’s Education, Community and Policy committee.
“I’m not committing one way or another to make any changes, but I think when a group comes forward, and they have a concern, what does it say about us as a board if we don’t do anything in response?” he said.
Several board members said they’d like to see that discussion happen, and the conversation continue, once school has started and class sizes have stabilized.
“We have the experts that study the issues, we look at the class size guidelines now, and it comes back to a work session, the public comes out, and we try to make the best decision with the facts that are presented,” board member Tim Kerr said.