School Board Questions

[Justine Cooper]

What is considered the appropriate size for a classroom? Is there a reason that three second grade classrooms at Hayes were put into two, with 27 and 31 in each class and is this common among the elementary schools?

Also, why are there two teacher inservice days scheduled for January? With part of winter break and MLK birthday in January, does two extra days off that month for the children make sense? I know some charter schools have teacher inservice days one to two weeks before school begins and/or after? Maybe there is some special inservice that can only be scheduled for January but as a parent I am just curious on that timing.

Thank you.

[Danielle Masters]

Justine, I am not sure what the actual numbers are but I seem to remember that the district doesn't like to see classes over 25 in elementary school. And I also believe the teacher contracts say that the schools will try and limits class sizes to 25. Unfortunately that is not happening in many classrooms, I know last year my 1st grader was in a class of 31 which is unacceptable as the district has repeatedly stated class sizes will not increase with the rebuilding of schools, they actually stated the opposite would happen. I know this year there are several classes of young children over those those amounts.

I would contact Jan Soeder with your questions about inservice days and also any concerns over class sizes. She is a wealth of information.

[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi guys.

I know at my school this year, there are two fifth grade classes at around 30 each,
that's Grant, and I've heard that Horace Mann has classes of 30 as well. At Grant, our extra modulars were closed because supposedly we didn't need them. Now our students our crammed in the main building, with one class using a room that was formerly a supply room. I'm not complaining about how the classes are being run however, the teachers are doing a great job so far.

It makes you wonder why we have this Community Forum the day after tomorrow, talking about closing a school, though I think the new schools are supposed to hold more. It would be terrible if we went to a six school configuration when we actually end up needing 7 schools.I've been hearing a lot lately about the "grandchildren of the baby boom" and how there's another population swell heading our way. Has anybody else heard anything more detailed about that? It certainly seems like something's going on right now in Lakewood with these overcrowded classrooms.

Maybe one of the things that should be brought up at the Community Forum on Tue night
is keeping the seven schools we have open. I know that it was "decided" at the last community forum that the community wanted 6 schools, but I think it was because they thought it was practical. There actually was no presentation on whether or not a 7 school configuration was viable. And I think the people at the last Forum, in April, thought they were just making suggestions. I don't think they knew they were deciding the issue right there, once and for all, for the whole city of Lakewood. It seems like something we might want to talk about.

[Justine Cooper]

Wow I didn't know the numbers were so high in several of the schools. I find that disturbing for the children and the teachers.

I will contact Jan Danielle, thank you. Quite frankly two inservice days in January does not make sense unless it is some rare inservice that can't be done any other way.

[Meg Ostrowski]

How about a centrally located school with additional flexible space that can be used to accomodate increases in enrollment when they occur and as community space when enrollment is down?

[Justine Cooper]

Sounds good to me.
Guess we will have to show up at a school board meeting to hear from the school board.

[Danielle Masters]

Justine I thought I would let you know that a third 2nd grade class was added at Grant. The classes are now at a reasonable size. I do hope that the large class sizes at the other schools have or will be fixed also.

[Justine Cooper]

Thanks Danielle. I was surprised that the excellent rating didn't include Hayes because they do an excellent job there. But with 30 kids in one class it will be hard for any teacher to reach that. I hope it changes but hate that it interrupts a school year after it started. 30 or close to is too many and the research supports that.