|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
News
School class sizes creeping upward : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisSchool class sizes creeping upward
| Rising enrollment means mores students in many classrooms, board told
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 9/20/2012
|
There's little enrollment growth resulting from new home construction in the Oswego School District these days, but class sizes continue to creep up, Superintendent Dr. Matthew Wendt told school board members last week.
The increased class sizes are attributed to children entering the schools from existing homes in the district, which includes Oswego, the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision and parts of Aurora, Montgomery, Plainfield and Yorkville.
In late August Wendt told the school board the district's enrollment had reached 17,739 or 178 more students than the 17,561 students expected by administrators when the current school year budget was prepared.
Last week, Wendt presented enrollment figures from Sept. 7, which showed that at the elementary level, most classrooms average between 20 and 30 students.
Wendt reported that eight classes averaged 33 students, four classes averaged 31 students, eight classes averaged 30 students, 12 classes averaged 29 students.
Additionally, he said that 12 classes averaged 28 students, 32 classes averaged 27 students and 19 classes had an average of 20 or less students per class.
"Once we get into that 32 and 33 number we find ourselves in the situation of wondering when we should add the next teacher. When we add a teacher you'll see that the average will drop to that 16-17 number," he said.
Wendt said they don't have problems with average classes of 23-25.
"But when we reach 28 and 29 it starts to get our attention. And when we get to the 32-33 range, we're starting to ask, if we get additional students in this class at this school, will we need to hire an additional teacher. There's a classroom capacity issue, space issue and the class size drops when another teacher is added," he noted.
He said staff members are now working on a report to show the actual numbers of students in each classroom rather than an average. The same report will be done at the junior high level, he said.
Wendt said this information will enable them to tell residents why there are less than 20 students in some classes and more than 30 in others.
Board member Brent Lightfoot said he would like to know how many music classrooms each school has that could potentially be used as additional core classrooms if necessary. He noted that special education classrooms are treated differently in that the district must keep these class sizes smaller than traditional classes.
Wendt said he noticed during his visits to elementary schools that each has a designated room for reading that could be used as a regular classroom.
He said he would include a list of rooms in each school that now have a different use but could be used for regular classes if necessary.
Board President Bill Walsh said some schools have interior rooms with no windows that can be used for classes but aren't. They should be included in the count as possible classrooms, he said.
When board member Ali Swanson asked for classroom sizes, Wendt noted that they are not the same in every school. Some classrooms cannot hold 30 students and others can hold more, he said.
Wendt plans to include this information and the total student capacity of every school on future lists.
Since Kindergarten classes are both half-day and full-day, Wendt said he would give board members actual numbers for each type of session at all schools.
Kindergarten classes range from zero at Lakewood Creek to seven with an average of 27 students at Southbury. He said Fox Chase and Churchill each have one class, but they have 28 students each.
The Wheatlands has the most first grade classes-six averaging 22 students each. Grande Park, Churchill, and Homestead each have 5 classes averaging 22 each. Southbury has four at 25 students, and Hunt Club has only one class, which has 29 students. All others are in the low 20s.
Homestead had the largest average for second grade-33 in four classrooms.
Others at the second grade level were Lakewood Creek with six classes averaging 25, and The Wheatlands with six averaging 23. Grande Park's 5 classes average 25, Fox Chase and Prairie Point with five each average 24, Churchill's five average 23, Wolf's Crossing's five average 21 and Southbury's five average 20. All others are in the mid to low 20s.
Four third grade classes at Fox Chase averaged 29, five at Churchill and Homestead averaged 27 each, five at the Wheatlands averaged 25, and four at Southbury and Prairie Point each averaged 26. All others were low to mid 20s except Boulder Hill that had four classes, averaging 19.
At the fourth grade level, Homestead's four classes averaged 33 and Fox Chase had four averaging 30. Lakewood Creek had six averaging 28, The Wheatlands had five averaging 27, Grande Park had four averaging 27, and Prairie Point and Wolf's Crossing had four averaging 26. The others were low to mid 20s.
At the fifth grade level, Prairie Point had the most classrooms-five that averaged 26. Fox Chase had four averaging 31, Churchill four averaging 30, Wolf's Crossing four averaging 29, Southbury three averaging 29, The Wheatlands four averaging 28, Prairie Point five averaging 26, and Grande Park, and Long Beach, four each, averaging 26. All others were low to mid 20s except Hunt Club which had two classes averaging 16 students.
Wendt did not say when an updated list would be presented to the board.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
