Two-thirds of Concord’s kindergarten and elementary school classrooms are at or below enrollment targets – and only one out of 91 classrooms is at the ceiling of the district’s class size guidelines.
In fact, district data shows a range of classes, most of which are below what the district aims for. One third-grade class at Beaver Meadow School has 15 students, while a second-grade class in the same building has 24, a difference of nine students. Similarly, fifth-grade classrooms at Abbot-Downing School and Christa McAuliffe School have as many as 26 students, while combined fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms at Beaver Meadow have as few as 17 students.
The Concord school board will discuss its class size policy and some of those numbers Wednesday ahead of upcoming budget discussions.
The board was going to reaffirm its policy without any changes last month, but chose to give it more consideration after some parents asked the district to get more feedback from parents and teachers.
“It’s one of those pieces everyone has experience with,” said Concord Superintendent Terri Forsten. “You’ve been in a bigger classroom and know what that feels like, you’ve been in a small classroom, you know what you prefer.”
The current policy is more than 30 years old and gives a range of acceptable class populations depending on the grade. Kindergarten classes can be anywhere from 14 to 20 students, with 17 being the objective; 18 to 24 students in grades one through three, with 21 being the objective; and 22 to 28 students in grades four through six, with 25 being the objective.
In older grades, 15 is the minimum and 30 is the maximum. Classes fewer than 15 need the approval of the superintendent.
Contrast those numbers with the state’s recommendations, which have higher benchmarks: No more than 25 students per teachers for kindergarten through second-grade, with 20 students or fewer being the goal; 30 students or fewer in grades three through five, with the goal of 25 students or fewer; and no more than 30 students per teacher in the middle and high school grades, according to school documents.
Concord’s elementary and middle school classes average about one student higher than the state’s averages, according to the district’s website. Data about high school class size averages were not readily available.
Enrollment in New Hampshire has been declining for years, and Concord is no different, according to school district documents. The district lost 612 students across all grades from 2007 to 2017, according to its 2017 enrollment report.
Last year, the district had 4,442 students. It currently has about 110 fewer, according to district documents.
Enrollment is a big factor not just when the school board considers its yearly budget, said board President Jennifer Patterson, but in the big-picture for the district, too. She pointed to the elementary school consolidation several years ago.
“We were looking at the most effective way to increase equity,” Patterson said, “and that was by having smaller classes at the primary level.”
The issue attracted the attention of Concord High School English teacher Heidi Crumrine, 2018’s Teacher of the Year. She said rising class sizes are impacting teacher’s abilities to provide the best education possible, especially when students have varying needs, in a recent Monitor “My Turn.”
“Speaking from my 20 years of experience as a teacher, any class with more than 25 students at the high school level is too big,” Crumrine writes. “The reality is that when I have a class of 30 students, I cannot give them as much feedback on their writing, I cannot meet with them for as long, both in and out of class, and it takes longer to get through any in-class activity that requires each student to participate or present.”
The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the SAU office Wednesday.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.