Sizing
UP
“D
o you have any extra desks?” “Everyone will have to share textbooks for the time being.” “There are how many kids in the class?” Chatter about the large classes filled the halls during the first weeks of school. With 17 fewer staff members than the previous year, enrollment at an all-time high and a reduced budget, the gossip over the substantial class sizes is not a merely rumor. This year, stricter finances have added to the increase in class size. “I’ve been here since 2001, and probably it’s the tightest budget constraints [this year],” said assistant principal Steven Ramsey, creator of the master schedule. “Tax revenue throughout the district is down. That’s how we get the money to fund teachers. [Houses are] just not appreciating as they were, so we’re just not getting as much coming in as we had in the past. That’s where the issue comes in with the budget.” This year’s smaller budget forced the district to make cutbacks, including the number of teachers. “Teachers who left weren’t replaced,” English teacher Sandra Coker said. “With [the
Overcrowding in classes causes issues for administrators, students, teachers
addition of] two instructional partners who prepare for and lead professional development in the core disciplines, we have even fewer teachers, so even fewer classes. The classes we do have generally include 30 or more students.” Teachers were not replaced because of the district budget limitations. “We didn’t replace [the teachers who left] because funding from the state [was low],” Ramsey said. “The district sets a staffing ratio of one faculty member to 17 students. They [say to] us, ‘Okay, this is how many teachers you should have,’ and we figure out how to still offer all of the courses for all of the various interests you have, and that’s where it becomes real tricky. Kids still want to have two choirs, and we make sure that [happens]. That is something we believe is pretty important. Because there are [multiple] choirs, that may mean that an English class is a little larger than last year, just because we don’t have as many [classes] of English being taught.” In the choice between inflated classes and a narrower variety of classes, the administration chose the former. “We could have chosen to eliminate [some
of the courses] and say, ‘Maybe we don’t need all of that,’” Ramsey said. “‘Maybe we need extra teachers here.’ But [students] want to take Chinese; [they] want to take Latin and Film and Robotics. Because we have such an awesome array of classes, it limits us sometimes. We had to make those decisions. ‘Do you want to keep this? Is this worthy?’ All of those classes may not have 30, 32 kids in them, but [they are] something we still think is very valuable. We’re still going to offer those to [you] so that you can have the experience where you can do everything you want to.” The school officials pride themselves on this decision because many other districts do not have the same assortment of courses. “We have a balance in the variety of classes [we offer],” principal Linda Rawlings said. “[The students] have benefited and enjoyed some of the classes [we have added] in the past four to five years.” The expansion of class sizes has occurred the most in the core classes (English, math, science and social studies) because every student is required to take the four main classes all four years, while other classes remained largely unaffected by the changes.