Beach Elementary teacher warns board class sizes in some grades are "too high"; trustees cite budget constraints

Rebecca Leadham, a STEAM teacher at Beach Elementary School, addressed the board during public comment to raise concerns about large elementary class sizes in specific grades and how those sizes affect instruction and student supports.

"Our district plans on classes being that high simply because it is within the contract maximum," Leadham said, urging that the contract maximum should not be used as the staffing goal. She provided counts for classes at Beach (present students only): kindergarten classrooms with 21 students each; first-grade classrooms of 30 and 29; second-grade sections of 21, 23 and 19; third-grade sections of 25 and 24; fourth-grade sections around 24'26; fifth-grade classes of 31 and 31; and sixth-grade sections of 32 and 28.

Leadham told the board the combination of large classes, rising numbers of students with IEPs and 504 plans, more behavioral needs and declining incoming literacy levels limits teachers' ability to differentiate instruction and meet individual needs. "Not only is there not enough room in most of our classrooms, but there is not enough time in a day to meet the needs of 28 to 35 students with several IEPs, 504s, intense behaviors, declining mental health, and declining social intelligence," she said.

Board members and administrators responded during the presentations and later discussion. Trustees acknowledged the district made staffing decisions within a constrained budget and noted that honoring negotiated contract provisions was part of the process. One board member said the district had previously made efforts to lower elementary class sizes and that this year's choices reflected difficult budget decisions: "The pot of money was only so big. So we had to make some very tough decisions and sometimes that comes with higher class sizes in some areas," the trustee said.

Superintendent Jason Witt and others reiterated the district's intent to support teachers and students and asked community members to understand the tradeoffs inherent in budgeting for staff and services. A public commenter returned later to clarify that the class-size concerns she raised targeted rooms in the upper 20s and 30s and that she had offered to provide precise counts when asked.

Why it matters

Class size affects daily instructional practice, the ability to provide differentiated instruction, and the capacity to meet students' special-education and social-emotional needs. Teachers and the public framed the issue as academic and operational, and board members framed it as a budgetary constraint decision the board and administration had to balance.

Provenance (selected transcript excerpts)

- Topic intro: Public comment by Rebecca Leadham (tc 00:00:12). - Topic finish: Board discussion on class sizes and budget tradeoffs (tc 00:45:10).