Maybe I’m the only one fascinated by this stuff, but… After the November School Family Council meeting, I heard lots of parent discussion about the one-year moratorium on new entrants into the RPEMS first grade, and I was curious about how the process works. I realize this issue doesn’t affect those of us already “in” at RPEMS, but as one of my personal panic points about public school is the specter of massive classes, I was very interested to know about the systems in place to keep class size manageable. So,I hunted down some facts on the issue and thought I’d share.
• Each of our four first grade classes currently has between 25 and 27 students per teacher – a significant increase from what was a modest-sized kindergarten class in 08-09, with growth mainly coming from within district.
• The moratorium (for which our school had to apply) covers both in- and out-of-district students, so even a child moving into the district this winter would be assigned to a school other than RPEMS.
• According to the Baltimore City Schools Office of Student Placement, because of the district placement system, there has never been a hard cap on class size in non-charter schools in the City. (Charter schools set a cap during the charter application process – which appears to average 20-22 kids in K-5.)
• At one time, there were size ‘guidelines’ that triggered when North Avenue would approve an additional teacher for a school to relieve overcrowding. With principals more autonomous now under Dr. Alonso, they set their own budgets and hire their own teachers, using both the budget and moratorium application processes to manage overcrowding.
• School administrators review a number of factors in making the decision to apply for a moratorium, including the young age of the students. (Last year’s robust fourth grade, with some classrooms exceeding 30 students, was also evidently closed to new students for much of the year.)
-Katy Couch (mom of Carrie and Lily, Kx2)