According to the district, the maximum class size increase would take a kindergarten class from one teacher per 19 students to one teacher for 22 students. In grades one through three, the student-teacher ratio would go from 20-to-1 to 23-to-1; grades four and five from 27-to-1 to 30-to-1; sixth through eighth, from 23.5-to-1 to 30-to-1; and grades nine through 12, from 26-to-1 to 32-to-1.
Increasing class sizes is estimated to save the district $53 million. Sanderson has not specified how many of the district's 8,308 teachers would be laid off as a result of increased class sizes, but said on Thursday it could be as many as several hundred. The district is facing an estimated budget deficit of $137.7 million for fiscal year 2011. The $882 million FY10 budget has already been slashed by more than $95 million. Board member Alison Bartlett, who teaches in Douglas County Schools, has been a persistent voice opposing class size increases since she took office in 2009. Bartlett said last week that increasing class sizes does not correlate with the district's top priority of providing students with a world-class education.
"I'm not OK with cutting the classrooms and parents need to understand that one allotment doesn't mean one student," Bartlett told the Journal last week. "You're not protecting education in the classroom by increasing class sizes."
Angie May, a Cheatham Hill Elementary School mom and vice-chair of the board-appointed SPLOST oversight committee, said she too is concerned that increased class sizes might hinder student achievement.
"That is my No. 1 concern. That is, in fact, the last thing that I would like to see happen," May said. "I would be in support of cutting transportation, dipping into the reserve fund, even cutting extracurricular funding - I know those programs are important, but our basic education in classrooms should be our top priority."
May also said increased class sizes would place an impossible burden on teachers, especially those in elementary schools.
"If you read any sort of education journals, that is the only thing that experts can agree on - there's a strong, strong correlation between student achievement and low student-teacher ratios," May said.
Jan Crane, a Durham Middle School mother and an occasional substitute at Ford Elementary, echoed May's sentiments. As a substitute, Crane has seen firsthand how difficult it is for teachers to manage a large classroom of students, on top of trying to teach them.
"When you're trying to manage a group like that, discipline issues come up," Crane said. "It's very challenging to provide the academic instruction when you're trying to deal with classroom management for such a large number. Twenty to 22 is quite large, and bumping that up to 30, it just seems like a big mistake... (The teachers') desire is to provide a basic education and serve every child, and when they're stretched too thin, they're not able to do their job with the effectiveness that they desire. It just seems like it would be kind of discouraging and overwhelming for them."
Crane said a teacher's one-on-one instruction time with students would diminish and struggling students would fall further behind.
Andrea Young, a Sanders Elementary School mom, added, "The classes now are full and it just seems like if you get more kids into a classroom that's already struggling, some kids are going to get lost. Because if they're not picking it up the first couple of times, it's going to be hard for these teachers to go back and help them."
Student achievement is her main concern, she said.
"I guess if children learned at the same pace, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But since they don't, I'm not in favor of increasing class sizes," Young said.
Marietta City Schools are also considering increasing class sizes, perhaps by adding two students to a class. Last week, Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck presented the Marietta City School Board with her list of proposed cuts, which included an increase of one student per classroom across all grades. That district is facing a budget deficit of about $7 million, and Lembeck calculated that a one-student-per-class increase would save the district a little more than $2 million.
Although Cobb County School District parents like May, Crane and Young understand that cuts do need to be made, they don't see the classroom as the place to make those cuts.
"There are so many other areas where cuts could be made," Crane said. "Things that are going to affect education - it just seems like the wrong thing to do. Why do we have to go straight to the classroom? Why do we have to go straight to the core of what we're trying to do?"
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Last Chance, unless you decide to sue because of their violation of due process:
6/9 CCSD Board Meeting
Public Comments - 7:30 AM sign in to speak
Board Meeting, comments - 8:30 AM
514 Glover St. Marietta, Georgia 30080
(Legal Adoption of the FY2011 Budget at Regular Board Meeting)
the above numbers aren't maximum class size, but funding levels, the numbers will be even higher than those listed and that will be very detrimental, especially in the lower grades.
Teachers will lose jobs and the children will suffer. What can be done? How about a willingness to pay $60-100 more in property tax to save our educational system (even if only for 1 or 2 years). Why not sell naming rights to the schools, stadiums, auditoriums, cafeterias, etc.? We need to think outside of the box and realize that not all taxes are evil. What is more important than the education of our children?