Holy crowded classroom, Batman!

[Ahmie Yeung]

Wow, there is only ONE 3rd grade class at Grant this year, and there are OVER 30 KIDS IN IT and I spoke to Mr. Gleickoff (sorry if that's misspelled) after dropping off my kid, he said that they'd had MORE enrollments since the day before (this was yesterday, 1st day of school) from the 27 they'd had officially the Friday before. He told me they're interviewing for a Teacher's Aide, I pointed out that I suspect that THAT many kids in THAT small of a room (they're out in the Modulars, which I'm fine with when they're not packed in like sardines, but that room is MAYBE twice the square footage of a standard Lakewood double's living room, probably less than that). The desks were pressed edge-to-edge in I think 3 rows of 7 with a few more off on the side, with the back corner desk by the door so close to the door that I couldn't get in the room in my wheelchair. I am nearly positive I saw the teacher have to turn sideways to squeeze between desks and wall on the other side of the room. There is NO room in there for the kids to do ANYTHING other than desk work. At the end of this school year, these kids are going to not only be getting tested for Gifted & Talented, but also the first big state tests if I remember correctly. This class needs to be split into two, or the chances that our rating is going to DROP are SIGNIFICANT. I'm sure the teacher is highly qualified and competent, but there's only so much even the best teacher ever could do while teaching in a darn sardine can! Plus, I sincerely suspect that this is violating fire code, to have that little space to move around in an emergency evacuation situation. Weren't we promised that class sizes would be kept reasonable? This is not a reasonable class size for the grade, or for the room. How ironic to have THIS happening in Grant when people have been pushing for Grant to be closed. What more evidence do people need that we NEED a central elementary school? Oh, and the kindergarten enrollment has spiked this year too - JUST like I warned them it was going to back in 2008 when the 2007 birth numbers came out (my 2nd child was born in the summer of 2007 so we're only seeing the first HALF of that wave of kids, and look around at how many pregnant women or new babies you're seeing THIS year... looks like a baby boom, walks like a baby boom, you think maybe it might be a baby boom? Oh, I'm expecting our 4th around Thanksgiving for those here who haven't heard, we also have one born in 2010).

With all the crap that's been going on in Cleveland schools, a lot of parents are finding the move across 117th more and more reasonable. We need to fight for funding, and fight to have adequate staffing levels (I'm sure we could get some great teachers with good amount of experience from the K-8 qualified ones still sitting on Cleveland's laid-off list, if there's actually any difficulty in finding someone otherwise - my husband teaches for Cleveland and would be quite happy to direct some of his laid-off acquaintances from the union this way if they're needed. Choice pickings are still available, I assure you). We CANNOT allow the core of our town to be left to rot like this. I'm at the moment trying to keep from going full-on "it's just part of the conspiracy to undermine Grant so it can be closed" mentality, TRYING to trust that our leaders aren't doing this INTENTIONALLY... Some reassurance would be appreciated.

[Ahmie Yeung]

Update: spoke to Ms. Ramsey this evening at Kindergarten orientation night. The district is putting in a job posting for an additional 3rd grade teacher in the next few days. The 3rd grade was initially to be split between two classes when letters were sent out, and the students who were told they had the other teacher (who I believe got reallocated to Kindergarten due to THEIR extraordinarily and *ahem* unpredictably large enrollment) will be switching to the newly re-created class with the new teacher.

THANK YOU for all who did whatever they did to make this happen.