A Parent’s Perspective on Class Size

Medford parent Matt Haberstroh, a member of Advocating 4 Medford Public Schools, wrote the following viewpoint following a discussion about class size at Monday’s School Committee meeting.

School Committee Hears from Parents About Class Sizes

Class Sizes Growing Along with Parents Concern

– Matthew Haberstroh

25, 26 27, 28 – student class sizes keep growing across the city’s school district. The size of classes concerns parents – and the School Committee heard from dozens of parents at a packed Council chambers Monday night. Parents have been lobbying the School Committee, the Mayor, and Superintendent to take action.

“It’s very complicated scenario and no one has a crystal ball when these things happen,” Superintendent Belson remarked when pressed by a parent’s questioning. One member of audience asked why the city doesn’t have the will to makes class size a priority – as the city had the will to put turf on sporting fields. Another asked that the excess money from the hotel and meals tax – there has been a greater portion collected then planned – go to the schools and be applied specifically to teacher positions to reduce class size.

The Mayor and Superintendent Belson spoke of how they are on board on working on reducing school class size. The Superintendent emphasized that small class size will reap big benefits down the road for Medford and we are all working on this – and we hear you – but it is a budgetary issue and that times are tight. The Mayor mentioned in these times anxiety gets higher amongst parents and the role of class sizes.

Parents did not want to hear about obstacles – they wanted action. School Committee Bill O’Keefe proposed a sub-committee to work on the vexing problem. This was voted down, with the deciding vote cast by Mayor McGlynn. The School Committee did vote favorably on a Committee of The Whole meeting to discuss class size. The meeting will be Monday, March 15 and it will be held at one of the schools.

Editor’s Note: The School Committee did not want to discuss class size in a sub-committee because they felt it was too important an issue to have only three members (sub-committee have three members) working on it and every member wants to be involved in addressing the issue.

Superintendent Belson said there are several reasons why some class sizes at different schools are larger than others. For example, the Columbus Elementary School has some classes that are much smaller than ones at the Brooks Elementary School. According to Belson, the following factors contribute to differing class sizes: students moving into the district, students with siblings at a certain school who request to attend that school, Medford’s school choice program that allows some flexibility in choosing a school, and students who are in the old boundaries of a school district that wish to attend that particular school. Mayor McGlynn said the school choice program has typically provided a way for the district to move kids around in an effort to balance out the schools. He also said it’s possible the city could reconsider school district boundaries but that tends to be very controversial with parents.

Superintendent Belson said the schools currently have a very large kindergarten class and the administration will need to keep an eye that class while it looks for a way to keep class sizes low.