School board discusses class sizes

Milford School District recently passed a waiver regarding class sizes as long as district staff made every effort to balance the number of students throughout the schools

At a recent meeting, Dr. Sara Hale, Chief Financial Officer for Milford School District, presented the annual class size and instructor to student ratio waiver to the Board of Education. This waiver is required when class sizes exceed 22 students in kindergarten through third grade and/or when schools are allotted less than 98 percent of the Division I units generated in the September 30 unit count.

“This year, we were fortunate, based on the decline in units, we did have our guaranteed unit count number, but staffing challenges are still present,” Hale said. “So, we do have a couple of classrooms throughout our elementary schools, primarily in our immersion classrooms, throughout those programs that do exceed the 22 student ratio that we’re seeking approval for this evening.”

Board member Jean Wylie asked if this was only for the immersion classrooms or if it also included regular classrooms as well. Immersion programs at Milford provide Spanish instruction for both English and Spanish-speaking students. According to Hale, Morris has four classrooms, all immersion classes, that have more than 22 students. Ross and Mispillion Elementary have six, and several of them are immersion. Banneker has seven with four of them immersion classes. Wylie asked if more teachers could address the issue.

“The way that the unit count is showing, we have staffed the buildings at more than 98% of their Division I units at this point in time,” Hale said. “I don’t know that would impact the class sizes too substantially.”

Board member Jennifer Massotti asked how many students would be placed in a classroom if the cap was at 22. Hale explained that there were classrooms with 28 students and that it was left up to building administration to balance classroom and teacher needs. Wylie asked if extra help was provided to the classes that had more than 22 students.

“Most of them have pushed in support during the day as well as some paraprofessionals,” Hale said.

When asked by board member Dr. Adam Brownstein what the plan would be if the board did not approve  the waiver, Hale responded that she had never been in that situation.

“We have not been in a situation where there was not the approval of a class size waiver, but that would require us to go back to the Department of Education and review class sizes,” Hale said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the units available at this point in time, so I would have to work with the Department of Education to figure out a plan for that.”

Superintendent Bridget Amory interjected that staff did try to maintain no more than 25 students in a classroom.

“Whenever we’re working to staff those individual classrooms and wherever we do have children or class sizes that are in excess of 22, then we do make sure that we provide additional supports to accommodate to make sure that there’s the ability to support small group instruction as well,” Amory said. “In some cases, some of those children are only in that classroom for a portion of the day, so they come out and the numbers appear higher, but they’re getting different supports throughout the course of the day.”

Brownstein felt that class size was going to become an issue for the district in the future.

“I have just today been reading through the draft notes from the governor’s task force on behavior. There have been several mentions of classroom sizes as a factor toward behavior,” Brownstein said. “So, even if we are able to kick the can down the road, I think the belt is going to tighten legislatively on that practice, so it’s going to have to be addressed one way or another.”

Brownstein continued, stating that the district could address the issue on its own terms or wait for legislation that would force them to address it.

“I am sympathetic because neither one of those is going to be good for our district.  I have historically voted no on this issue. I think this is one of the places where the rules and guidelines are there for a good reason,” Brownstein said. “If we physically do not have the classroom space and that’s the issue, then, I mean, the space is what the space is. I’m sympathetic with that, but I also feel like if we go to the Department of Education and that’s the reason, that they’re going to have to approve an override, regardless of what the board says.”

According to Hale, physical classroom space is the issue causing the larger classroom sizes, something that will be addressed when the redistricting occurs next year after Milford Middle School reopens. Wylie pointed out that this waiver has been approved in the past.

“This would be my 10th or 11th time bringing this waiver, and it’s been approved each year,” Hale said. “It is certainly not the district’s goal to exceed that ratio, we make every effort not to do so. Again, the same thing with the 98%, making sure that our Division I units are allocated appropriately. We go through extensive processes for that as well. But there are instances where that cannot be avoided, and so that’s what the waiver is for.”

Brownstein still had concerns about approving the waiver.

“If we had a situation, for instance, where we were limiting the number of kids that could opt into an immersion program and shuffling some of those into the non-immersion program, what you are telling me is that this might be able to help some of this issue,” Brownstein said. “My job here is to be devil’s advocate, right? I feel like if you’re going to push up against classroom size, which I personally think is one of the single biggest issues that affects the dynamic of the classroom, I would only vote for an override if we have exhausted all other possibilities first. To me, it does not seem like that has happened, but I’m just one person.”

Hale explained that class sizes for the immersion program were the biggest issue as they were in high demand. A roll call vote was taken after Wylie made the motion to approve the request, seconded by Massotti, which resulted in only three yes votes. There were two no votes and two board members absent, Vice-President Matt Bucher and board member Butch Elzey.

During the roll call, board member Ashlee Connell asked why the district was not spreading students out, moving one or two from the classrooms with 25 or 26 to classrooms with just 22.

“What I can assure you is that our administration regularly does work to balance classes as much as possible. In the case of immersion, we follow the state guidelines where we do use a lottery, and the lottery system does recommend that we staff or we build these classes at 25,” Amory said. “The 25 kindergarten, that is the state’s recommendation because of attrition within the program. And so, we follow their model. That is why we are in the place with that.”

Amory also explained some of the issue was related to staff members who were not in place early in the year.

“We have put them in a platform where they weren’t accounted for, but they didn’t have a teacher and in some cases, we’ve been able to fill some of those positions,” Amory said. “Some of those classes have already been rebalanced. We can bring revised numbers to you if that would help.”

Connell stated that it would be helpful to see more updated numbers. In the initial roll call vote, Brownstein and Connell voted no with Wylie, Massotti and Fitzgerald voting yes. This meant the measure did not pass. Connell then made a new motion, asking the board to approve the measure with contingencies just discussed with students being equally spread among classrooms.

A roll call vote had Brownstein still as a no vote, but Connell, Wylie, Fitzgerald and Massotti voted yes which meant the revised motion passed.