Parents weigh in on balancing district’s class sizes

Board of Education meeting stays cordial amid strong concerns

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At a Rockville Centre Board of Education forum held at South Side High School on Oct. 3, elementary school parents voiced their concerns over a suspended district policy designed to help administrators deal with the problem of class sizes.

The policy enabled district administrators to give parents the option to move their child to a school with classes of fewer than 19 students if they were zoned to enroll in a class of 25 or more.

The issue came to a head at the end of the 2016 school year, when the policy was ultimately put on hold after parents of Riverside Elementary School complained that its use resulted in more populated classrooms. Two students zoned to attend Riverside were offered the opportunity to attend Watson instead, and did, which meant that Riverside’s kindergarten class did not meet the threshold for a split, which would have virtually halved the class size.

In the summer of 2017, prior to the start of this school year, Wilson faced a similar issue. The kindergarten would have had three classes of 25 each, but a new student enrolled at the last minute, which triggered a split. The kindergarten class size was reduced from 25 to 19, but the art room had to be moved into an outdoor portable structure in order to make room for the new class.

Anne Vassel, a Riverside parent, said at the Oct. 3 meeting that the class balancing policy was unfair to the majority of families who valued the idea of what she called a community school.

“We want our kids to be able to go to school with their neighbors,” she said. “We want them to be able to ride their bikes with the kids they’re in class with. The policy is benefiting the minority — the parents who are voluntarily moving their kids — at the expense of the majority, the parents and students who want to remain in their community school.”

School board trustee Tara Hackett pointed out that what happened at Wilson this year was essentially a reverse example of that. Wilson’s kindergarten parents might have been pleased with the split, she noted, but they are the minority of school’s parents overall. “If class balancing had been enacted,” Hackett explained, “the majority of the building would have been able to keep their art room.”

Parent Janet Grinner said that she empathized with the board’s challenge of finding a solution to please everyone. “You’re never going to make everyone happy,” she said, “so I’d love to know what the general philosophy is on class size versus, say, art room space, and how the board will balance those things.”

Under the suspended policy, younger siblings of students who didn’t attend their home-zoned school would be able to attend their sibling’s elementary school. Katie Conlan said, “You don’t know what the class size is going to be in that school for their younger siblings coming along.”

Dr. Johnson replied that regardless of the policy, it was incredibly difficult to predict incoming class sizes, but that they were in conversation with local real estate professionals about trends in newcomers to the village.

Resident Kristin Kelsh said that she hoped the board would not consider classrooms alone, but rather to “consider the building in its totality.” Parent Jackie Cahalin agreed, adding: “The development of a one-size-fits-all policy for all five of our elementary schools is very problematic. We have bigger schools and we have smaller schools. Wilson right now is busting at the seams. Riverside has classrooms open.”

Hackett agreed. “There are surges in different places in different years,” she said. “This policy is not meant to be a band-aid to fix every issue we have in the district. It’s meant to be available as an option when we have surges in certain places.”

School board president John O’Shea emphasized that any policy enacted by the board would be voluntary, and rely on the choices of families to decide what was best for their children.

A number of parents expressed to the board their gratitude for the transparency of the meeting, and the board’s willingness to listen to parents’ concerns.

Hackett said the dialogue provided a chance for the parents to discuss the issue with the board without feeling rushed at the end of a typical school board meeting. “I was thrilled,” she said after the forum. “I was happy with the people that came out, and being able to hear their thoughts.”