School board rolls back class size changes
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on May 30, 2018 5:50 AM
The Wayne County Board of Education voted to slightly roll back planned reductions in class sizes at five low-performing elementary schools at its meeting Tuesday, choosing a course of action which is expected to cost the system just over $200,000 and cause one school to adopt co-teaching to save space.
The decision followed several months of discussion, after the board voted in February to fully implement General Assembly-mandated class size reductions which were initially to be rolled out over four years. That plan would have cost the district over $1.5 million dollars and potentially put art, music and physical education positions at risk, according to a report from Superintendent Michael Dunsmore in late March. That motion, put forward by board member Raymond Smith and supported by chairman Patricia Burden and board members Len Henderson, Arnold Flowers and Richard Pridgen, would have required the district to reduce grades K-3 class sizes at Brogden Primary, Carver Elementary, Carver Heights Elementary, Eastern Wayne Elementary and Spring Creek Elementary to 18 in Kindergarten, 16 in first grade and 17 in second and third grades by the start of the 2018-19 school year.
The new plan -- "option two," as it was presented -- would see the district get two years ahead of schedule instead of the full three, as originally voted. Doing so would require a total of 12 new teachers between the five schools, nine of which would already be funded by the state. The remaining five teachers would cost the district approximately $204,000 -- $68,000 per teacher -- as well as requiring the use of co-teaching at Brogden Primary in order to avoid displacing art, music, physical education or exceptional children programs already in place.
At Carver Heights, Carver Elementary and Spring Creek, existing space now used as offices, tutoring rooms and storage could be turned into new classroom space. Eastern Wayne Elementary would not require any additional space.
The vote was not unanimous, and in fact was not the first motion made on the subject. Beforehand, board member Arnold Flowers moved to adopt a more conservative set of reductions -- presented as "option one" -- which would have set the district one year ahead of schedule at the low-performing schools. That option would have come at effectively no cost to the district, as it would only require nine teachers and thus be completely covered by the state.
Flowers, West and Pridgen voted in favor of the motion, while Burden, Smith and Henderson were opposed. With board member Jennifer Strickland not in attendance, the tied vote meant that the motion failed.
Smith then made the motion to adopt option two. He, along with Henderson, Pridgen, Burden and Flowers voted in favor, while West cast the lone dissenting vote.