District 102 Class Size Bump Extended By One Year

La Grange School District 102 is keeping its maximum class size in elementary schools during the 2011-12 school year as higher by one student than the district’s own rules permit.

At its Thursday night meeting, the board unanimously approved the one-year extension of a class-size increase currently in effect across the district’s K-6 schools. This school year and next, elementary classes can contain one more student than the maximums that District 102's Rule 6204 sets out, without hiring any additional teachers.

Rule 6204’s maximum class size for kindergarten and first-grade classes is 23 students. It’s 24 for second- and third-grade classes and 26 for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. With Thursday’s action in effect, one student can be tacked on to each of those numbers.

“I would say personally I’d rather not have to do it, but it seems like a reasonable tradeoff to me,” board member Jennifer Comparoni said.

The “tradeoff” would be the potential to combine sections and maintain lower staff numbers. Board member Donald Sands wondered whether a plus-two maximum raise would be palatable. “I just look at the financial condition [of the district] and say we need to take a tougher look.”

Board president David May said a two-student bump would allow the district to reduce staff by two or three. However, combining five classes into four has a ripple effect on all the students, not just the ones whose section would be split, he said.

Comparoni said even with the one-student increase, class sizes in District 102 remain reasonable compared to other districts. She did not cite other school districts' numbers.

“I don’t think we’re materially degrading or improving with the action we’ve taken,” Board member Peter Tiemeyer said. “Each time you ratchet it up, you’re doing something and you have to look at it.”

The increase came before the board Thursday, according to superintendant Warren Shillingburg, as the administration begins the staffing process for next year. Shillingburg said there have been no unforeseen issues this school year tied to the one-student maximum increase.

The district maximums were set by a class-size task force that convened from 2005 to 2007, according to Comparoni. She said the committee was made up of teachers, parents, administration, and community taxpayers without kids in the district.

“It was really a comprehensive look at all the tradeoffs; what was best for the classroom, but what was an affordable, reasonable balance. It was a good process,” Comparoni said.

According to Rule 6204’s language, “The Board [of Education] seeks to establish class sizes that provide such a learning environment and meet student learning needs, while also considering practical space constraints and exercising prudent fiscal management…If it is not possible to achieve desirable class sizes due to space constraints, partner teachers may be used to achieve lower student-to-teacher ratios.”

Park Junior High class-size numbers are not affected by Rule 6204, although the board was interested in getting information about junior high maximum standards and how Park is doing relative to them. A future report by Park administrators was requested.