APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size

[Anonymous]

Property taxes at an all time high and we have school budget concerns. Unbelievable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS makes it difficult to find information like this. I believe you have to look at the planning factors. https://www.apsva.us/budget-finance/planning-factors/

For this school year, for grades K/1, I believe the max class size is 24; for 2/3 it is 26; and for 4/5 it is 28.

They change the max level every year. They increased it twice in a row during the pandemic but I think for this year they lowered it slightly.

These numbers are crazy, my kids' classes were always under 20 a few years ago (S. Arlington)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS makes it difficult to find information like this. I believe you have to look at the planning factors. https://www.apsva.us/budget-finance/planning-factors/

For this school year, for grades K/1, I believe the max class size is 24; for 2/3 it is 26; and for 4/5 it is 28.

They change the max level every year. They increased it twice in a row during the pandemic but I think for this year they lowered it slightly.

These numbers are crazy, my kids' classes were always under 20 a few years ago (S. Arlington)!

My kid has 25 in their 1st grade class. It's insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS makes it difficult to find information like this. I believe you have to look at the planning factors. https://www.apsva.us/budget-finance/planning-factors/

For this school year, for grades K/1, I believe the max class size is 24; for 2/3 it is 26; and for 4/5 it is 28.

They change the max level every year. They increased it twice in a row during the pandemic but I think for this year they lowered it slightly.

These numbers are crazy, my kids' classes were always under 20 a few years ago (S. Arlington)!

It is crazy, think about everything a teacher has to do (including monitoring for OD vs sleepiness in MS/HS) and how many more heads they have to look out for... in addition to that many more assessments, parent emails, behavior issues, etc. And some don't understand why teachers are burning out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Property taxes at an all time high and we have school budget concerns. Unbelievable.

I'm the PP who noted Mary Kadera's suggestion to increase class sizes to deal with budget concerns, but given the above comment wanted to add that the school budget concerns are not crazy or made up. Arlington spends more per child on schools than most other areas of Virginia, and has hundreds of thousands of dollars in school debt that it needs to get bonds for to pay off every year or two. Meanwhile construction costs went up so the buildings and other construction APS has planned over the last decade or two keep coming in over budget (and some of the buildings have just been prettier/fancier etc. than the district really needed). And we can't build a comprehensive 4th high school, but we keep hiring more people to work as staff at Syphax and I think only recently increased teacher pay consistent with what other school districts were doing? So the budget concerns are real, and class sizes had been slowly increasing even before Kadera, but I think she sped things up in that direction where previously the board had found other ways to deal besides increasing class sizes.

Also, a huge portion of the budget mess was created by previous superintendent Patrick Murphy.

[Anonymous]

My second grader is one of 28 kids. I don’t know how the teacher still has her sanity. It’s unfair to her and the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank Mary Kadera for the increase in class sizes over the last several years, I think that was her idea in response to budget concerns. Previously APS had been preserving its smaller class sizes in relation to other school districts, but I don't think they're smaller anymore.

Kadera didn’t start serving until 2022

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank Mary Kadera for the increase in class sizes over the last several years, I think that was her idea in response to budget concerns. Previously APS had been preserving its smaller class sizes in relation to other school districts, but I don't think they're smaller anymore.

This is a ridiculous charge - you got some beef with someone who wasn’t even on the board when class sizes increases? IIRC classes sizes were increase in spring of 2020 and then again in spring of 2021 for the following year. MK joined the board in January 2022 and… wait for it… voted for a budget that reversed both of those class size increases.

But trust me, class size increases will be on the table again. If not this year, next. All the one time money from the feds has covered up a real deficit problem.

[Anonymous]

Hey, I am the PP who was blaming Mary Kadera above for the increased class sizes, and I need to sincerely apologize. I thought I remembered reading materials from her suggesting that class sizes should be increased when she was running for school board, as an obvious starting point for budget cuts. I must have been wrong, and I'm sorry for that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey, I am the PP who was blaming Mary Kadera above for the increased class sizes, and I need to sincerely apologize. I thought I remembered reading materials from her suggesting that class sizes should be increased when she was running for school board, as an obvious starting point for budget cuts. I must have been wrong, and I'm sorry for that!

You can report your posts and have them removed

[Anonymous]

1. Wait for the 22-23 class size report to come out
2. Follow the budget process, which starts later in Feb

[Anonymous]

These numbers are still under the FCPS numbers. And they do quite nicely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These numbers are still under the FCPS numbers. And they do quite nicely.

FCPS has differentiation

[Anonymous]

So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?

My kindergartner has 18 kids in his class with a teacher and assistant. That’s the average at our school.