Class Sizes at Cascadia

What’s going on? 

• 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th grade classes are currently larger than we would like.
• 2^nd and 3^rd grade currently have around 24 kids per class
• 4^th grade classes have around 33-4 kids per class

Why did this happen?

• Last year, the district significantly underestimated how many kids were going to be joining Cascadia this school year. They did make some adjustments in June, but not enough.

Aren’t there limits on how many students can be in a class? Will Cascadia be allocated additional teachers?

• There are no legal limits to class sizes. However:
• For grades K-3, schools need to keep their classes at a 23:1 ratio in order to receive maximum funding from the state, funding they have already received and would have to return if they fail to meet the correct ratio. **Given this strong financial incentive we believe the district will allocate another teacher at these grade levels, which would mean the split class dissolves and all classes would be under 23 students.
• For grades 4-12, teachers must be paid extra for each child above a threshold assigned for their grade (28 is the first threshold, 34 is the next one). This is pursuant to the teachers collective bargaining agreement.
• This includes all of their teachers, including PE, Music, Art. Our 4^th grade classes are significantly over that threshold.  Given we have SO MANY classes that are WELL above 28, we think there is a good chance that the district will be financially incentivized to allocate another teacher for this grade. They would compare the cost of all this teachers’ overage pay vs. the cost of an additional teacher and an additional 0.5 PCP allocated to the school (with no added cost in benefits tracking that 0.5PCP).

·   When would this happen? Wouldn’t this screw up the kids’ schedules?

• If we are getting new teachers, we could get them as soon as October 2. If not that day, soon after.
• The school administration has created 2 school schedules: 1) for the current staffing and 2) one for if new staffing is allocated. So the school is ready.
• Principal Mackey has indicated that if a new teacher is given to us for grade 4, 2 classes would stay as a pair, and 3 classes would be split between 3 teachers. This is because the school believes that it prepares students for middle school to have more than one teacher. 

What can we do?

• The count of the kids in the school on October 1^st will be the figure that the district uses to decide how to allocate staff, regardless of whether or not they have an excused absence or are sick. No rolling average is used.
• The most important thing anyone can do is to make sure your kid is in school on October 1^st, at the very least for attendance, if it is possible to do so.