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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This note just went out from the principal.

Dear KDG and 5th Grade Parents –

You may have noticed that the class sizes in Kindergarten and 5th grade look a little larger than normal. Here’s why:

Kindergarten
This spring and summer, we have had an abundance of new in-boundary KDG students. In the last week alone we have received 4 new in-boundary kindergarten students!

Classes currently have 28 students per class, with a teacher and an instructional aide. Unfortunately, our enrollment is sitting in a “no man’s land” of sorts – enough kids that we have larger classes, but not quite enough kids to trigger the addition of a 6th class. We are sitting right on the cusp. DCPS and I are both monitoring our enrollment daily. If we continue to see students enroll in KDG, we will start discussing the process of adding an additional teacher. If our enrollment stays steady, there is a good chance we will stay where we are.

The next two weeks are critical – it is very important that any potentially new in-boundary KDG students enroll ASAP so we can plan accordingly. Stay tuned for more updates as our two weeks unfold.

5th Grade
At the end of last year, I worked with the 5th grade team to be sure that the schedule provided for equal instructional minutes in all classes for all subjects. I also heard you loud and clear – more Science!

Therefore, we moved to four 5th grade homerooms (2 teams of 2), and one 5th grade science teacher. The students will be on a "team" for ELA/Math/Soc Stu and then rotate to Science with Ms. DiRenzo for 45 mins every day.

The reduction in homerooms has caused a slight increase in number of students per class (26). The class size is still below average class size in other elementary schools.

Other Clarifications - 
This year we have welcomed over 50 new in-boundary families. We are currently enrolled at 807 students.
While we have also welcomed two new special education classrooms, this addition is not related to the larger class sizes. The classrooms are capped at 10 students (grades K-2) and 12 students (grades 3-5). They are an incredible add to our community for which I am thankful to share with our students.
In-boundary families continue to move into our neighborhood and enroll. It is a great problem to have! This speaks to your incredible sense of community and the overall success of our school. If your neighbor hasn't yet enrolled, please send them our way!
Please don't worry. We are still three weeks away from the first day of school. I'm also confident in our amazing teachers and instructional aides. I'll keep you in the loop as I know more information.

Have a great rest of the week,
Dr. B[/quote]

So, they had unexpected additional enrollment (blip years happen - families move, etc.  One year, we had 5 international/state dept families enroll over the summer that no one could've really accounted for) and there is also a needed trigger point to get to the point of having the 6th classroom for K, which is beyond the principal's control, it is a public school required to accommodate any children in the cachement.  And[b] remember if you do open a 6th classroom, they will then open up slots for added OOB kids to 'fill' all the classes up, which then you will be carrying through 5th grade[/b] (and on to Deal).   (Remember in this area, many MoCo and Arlington schools have 30 or more in K and early elems with no aides - so the overstatements about it being 'horrifying' are not going to help your case.)

[/quote]

That's not the case here. Just do the very simple math. 5 classrooms of 28. Take four children from 2 classes, and five children from the other 3 to fill a sixth class and you have class sizes of 23 or 24, which it absolutely reasonable for Kindergarten and should not require a single call to the waitlist. Besides, while the "filling up with OOB" argument is valid in some cases, I suspect that most families would take that possibility (especially at the K level) if it means smaller calss size. [/quote]

The catch/rub is that DCPS pushes filling up to 25 or 26 per classroom (look across other JKLM/WOTP schools-  where this has been our reality recently -- we had 10 OOBs added to the grade/cohort mix -- adding to class sizes of 26!)... so you could be giving up 28 to get to 26.  [/quote]

That hasn't happened with any other grade. 2nd grade has 5 classes of 22 and 3rd grade has 5 classes of 23.[/quote]

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