Board of Education Addresses Class Size Issues
February 20, 2008 - Principals at 13 Wake County Public School System schools are being given flexibility and if needed, additional teachers to help address the class size waiver issues being discussed by the Wake County Board of Education and State Board of Education.In its Tuesday meeting, the board approved up to 39 months of teacher employment, appropriating up to $197,000 from the school system’s fund balance, to help principals at the 13 schools address the 56 classes that were over the Kindergarten to third grade class size limits in recent snapshot reports to the state. The 39 months of employment would provide three months of employment per school.
The 13 elementary schools affected by the board’s action are East Garner, Hilburn Drive, Olds, Morrisville, River Bend, Rolesville, Root, Smith, Turner Creek, Wake Forest, Weatherstone, Wendell and Wiley.
Board chair Rosa Gill said she and Superintendent Del Burns would be meeting with State Board of Education chair Howard Lee on Friday to discuss these issues.
Dynamic growth
At the board meeting, Superintendent Burns said there has been significant movement in the school population since WCPSS reported its 20-day enrollment of 134,002 students. There have been 1,039 new enrollments, 1,211 students transferring from one school to another; 334 students transferring into WCPSS from other NC schools; and 306 internal grade or track changes. Burns explained this turbulence, or change as students enter and move from school to school, is part of the dramatic growth WCPSS continues to experience.
The class size limits set out in state statute for kindergarten through third grade affect the grade levels where WCPSS is seeing mid-year growth. In the snapshot monthly reports provided the state, the 13 WCPSS schools had classes with one or two students more than the class size limits.
Burns explained that principals had to manage the allotted number of teachers they receive and the capacity of their school facilities to address a continuously changing population of students. He praised the job WCPSS principals have done and the creative steps they have taken to keep the focus on learning and teaching.
Schools manage dynamic growth
Area Superintendent Danny Barnes and Principals Shane Barham of the traditional calendar Rolesville Elementary and James Overman of the year-round calendar East Garner Elementary talked with the board.
Barham explained that Rolesville expected to start the year off with 460 students, but in serving as a traditional calendar option, the school ’s enrollment increased to 640 for the 20th day. The school has 682 students now. He said class size issues are only affecting the school’s third grade. In these classes, the school has used its Challenged School and Accelerated Learning Program funds to hire an additional 1.5 teachers who go into class to address students’ needs and pull students out of class to provide them instruction allowing the classroom teacher to work with a smaller group of students. The school has created a position for a teacher assistant who is shared by the third grade teachers. The school does not have classroom space or a place in the master calendar to provide art and music, even if it were to create an additional third grade class.
Overman told the board that two of the four classes at East Garner are back in compliance since the fourth month class size waiver request. He noted students move in and out of schools affecting the make up of the year-round school's tracks and class size. He said new students often arrive with siblings who are fit on the same track at different grade levels. He said it’s challenging to provide balance to tracks and classes with the turbulence schools are experiencing. There may be a class above the size limits at one grade on one track and other classes on different tracks with fewer students. At the start of the school year, he said principals must address immediate needs, while still keeping in mind the changing school population and different issues that may need to be addressed later in the school year.
Overman said East Garner has restructured the school day to involve the school’s administrators and other educators in the classrooms in the afternoon to provide instruction. He says the school directs community volunteers into its larger classes. He said the school has also worked to provide teacher assistants to help in third grade classrooms.
Both principals advocated keeping the focus on learning and doing what’s best for students. While each school is unique, they said all principals work to maximize the resources they have for students.
In discussing steps to address the class size issues, Superintendent Burns said it would be important to provide principals flexibility in meeting the challenges at their schools and noted the different steps Barham and Overman described they had used to help students and address class size issues.
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