Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010

Schools scramble to shrink classes

Elementary school students scattered across Wake County will be saying goodbye to their teachers and classmates as they change classes in the middle of the school year to comply with state class size limits.

Students are leaving the teachers and classmates they've known since last summer. Students from different grade levels are being lumped together. Families at year-round schools face changing their plans for the rest of the school year because they're being given a new schedule.

Those are some of the steps being taken because the state Board of Education said no in December to Wake's request to allow 329 kindergarten through third-grade classes to have more than the state limit of 24 students.

The waivers covered 66 of Wake's 102 elementary schools. Principals are breaking up overcrowded classes, sometimes forcing students to make the move after not getting enough volunteers.

The changes are drawing protests from parents, even those whose children aren't being moved.

"It's too late in the school year to move children," said Maggi Stone, PTA president of West Lake Elementary School near Apex, one of several schools that are implementing the changes. "It's not in their best interests to move children when you're half way or two-thirds into the school year."

Wake and state officials are blaming each other for changes both sides admit will be disruptive for these young students.

Wake leaders say the changes could have been avoided if the state had granted the waivers during a tight budget year in which fewer teachers were hired because of lack of money.

But Bill Harrison, chairman of the state board, said Wake had been warned last school year to do everything in its power to avoid asking for more waivers. The state had approved all of Wake's waiver requests last school year. He said the waivers are not supposed to be routinely granted.

"They need to be in compliance with state law," Harrison said. "The requirements of the statute are pretty clear."

Class sizes are up all across the state because of budget cuts caused by the national recession. School districts need to make individual requests for waivers for the early elementary grades.

Harrison contrasted Wake's 329 waivers with the 24 waivers requested by the rest of the state. None of the other Triangle districts have requested waivers this year.

Since the state rejected the waivers, principals have been checking to see whether those 329 classes still have more than 24 students. Michael Evans, a Wake schools' spokesman, said there's no updated districtwide list of how many classes are out of compliance.

Evans said the district is providing $1 million to hire new teachers if schools don't have enough money.

George Risinger, principal of Heritage Elementary School in Wake Forest, has been trying to entice families with a new class to reduce crowding in five third-grade classes.

Wake's year-round schools split students into four groups, called tracks, with their own schedules and days off. Some schools are making students change tracks.

To minimize disruptions, Risinger will put students from different tracks in the same class with the teacher adjusting as children leave and come back from breaks.

"Nobody wants to switch teachers, but they'll be in a small class where they'll get more individualized attention," Risinger said.

But ultimately, Risinger said, he'll have to pick students to move if he doesn't get enough volunteers

That's what happened at West Lake Elementary, where Nancy Robinson learned last week that her daughter, Kylie, will be switched to a new class. In addition, Kylie, a first-grader, will now be attending a class that includes kindergarten students.

"I know the class was over by four students, but she has a great teacher and she seemed to be doing a good job of handling it," said Robinson, who lives in Cary.

Rob Galvin avoided having his child moved into a new class that combines kindergarten and first-grade students at Laurel Park Elementary School in Apex. But the Cary parent says he can't believe they'd put both grades together to reduce class sizes.

"How is the teacher going to teach two different curriculums and keep track of everything?" Galvin said.