Anonymous
Post 02/15/2023 22:15     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
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!


She has said in debates and her newsletter indicating that she thinks increasing class sizes is fair game for reigning in budgets and cited research about how research on class sizes is mixed (which is correct).


debating about if Kadera is partially responsible for increasing class sizes is missing the point. The larger issue is that APS as a whole is horrific at budgeting. Too many "non-mission" items (facilities construction/debt service, bloated admin hiring, etc) are crowding out the important stuff (teacher pay, class sizes, tutoring services, extracurricular support, etc). Without some budget discipline, this is a problem that will never resolve itself.
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2023 21:58     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
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!


She has said in debates and her newsletter indicating that she thinks increasing class sizes is fair game for reigning in budgets and cited research about how research on class sizes is mixed (which is correct).
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2023 20:47     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Where did Mary call for increased class sizes? I must have missed that.

Anyways, she hasn't been on the board that long, so your focus on her is kind of odd. Class sizes went up many times before she got on the board.


I remember reading the same materials when she was running. She did some sort of recommendation about a slight increase of classes (but increase nonetheless) and it was a knock against her when she was going up against the other candidate. But most people did not vote in that primary / caucus /etc. She seems way better than the other SB members, but she did recommend increases
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2023 20:22     Subject: Re:APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:1. Wait for the 22-23 class size report to come out
2. Follow the budget process, which starts later in Feb


When is 22-23 class size report coming???


Odd they had class size reports done by December. It’s almost March??

https://www.apsva.us/statistics/class-size-report/
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2023 20:20     Subject: Re:APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:1. Wait for the 22-23 class size report to come out
2. Follow the budget process, which starts later in Feb


When is 22-23 class size report coming???
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 20:45     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
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 "thought you remembered" and that was enough for you to post false info slandering someone? and you even did it in a snarky way - "Thank MK for that...."

Pretty bad, PP.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 20:42     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Where did Mary call for increased class sizes? I must have missed that.

Anyways, she hasn't been on the board that long, so your focus on her is kind of odd. Class sizes went up many times before she got on the board.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 20:18     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Wow!!

Probably title I


Not necessarily. Look at Discovery, Long Branch, and Oakridge, on last year's report. Sometimes it just works out like that.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 16:12     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Wow!!

Probably title I
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 16:11     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?

No. Mine is 20-22. S. Arlington, not title I
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 16:07     Subject: Re:APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Most districts only have recommended class sizes. They aren't often followed. I've been teaching for forever and we're often out of compliance with fire code due to too many kids in rooms
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 15:58     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?



Where is that consensus coming from?
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 15:04     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?


LOL, looks like one report of a 1st grade at 25 and one report of a 2nd grade at 28. There are at least 100 K classes across APS. Relax.
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 14:24     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Wow!!
Anonymous
Post 02/08/2023 13:01     Subject: APS VA Class Size Recommended Max Class Size
Anonymous wrote:So consensus is K is about 26 kids per class now all over APS?


Our Ks are around 24.