Disclosure: My daughter is about to finish first grade at South Elementary School. My wife was one of the parents who signed the letters referenced in this article.
Dozens of South Elementary School parents are pushing Andover Public Schools to reconsider a decision to reassign a teacher and eliminate one of four first grade classes this fall.
The parents sent letters on Monday and Tuesday, first to Principal Brenda Lee and then to Superintendent Magda Parvey pressing for reasoning behind the decision to transfer a South School first grade teacher to Bancroft Elementary School. The notes said they are worried about increases in class size, and noted APS stressed it was committed to reducing class size when it asked for support to construct the new West Elementary and Shawsheen Preschool.
“We understand that it is within the parameters of the guidelines to eliminate the fourth class, but we do not understand why the fourth class is being eliminated,” the note said. “Increasing class sizes is in opposition to what the taxpayers voted for with the funding of the new West Elementary school.”
As of Tuesday, more 120 parents had signed onto the emails.
There are 65 students in this year’s kindergarten cohort at South Elementary. The district monitors enrollment throughout the summer as families move in and out of Andover before finalizing class assignments in August.
In her response to parents, Parvey said the move would not necessarily increase student-to-teacher ratios, and that June was too soon to determine how many students will be enrolled in each first grade class.
“It would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer funding to utilize resources without a review of appropriate data to inform the best use of that resource,” Parvey said. “As experienced educators, our decisions are not arbitrary or based on ‘what the district has always done’.”
APS spokeswoman Nicole Kieser said the school budget Annual Town Meeting passed last month does not include layoffs. Kieser said the school committee’s policy on class size requires first grade classes to have 23 or fewer students.
This year, elementary school class sizes averaged 20.1 students across the district, lower than the 20.8 students per class in 2019-20, before public school enrollment dropped across the state for two years during the coronavirus pandemic. The district’s 14-year average is 21.3 students per class, including a high of 23 students per class in 2015-16.
File photo.
It will be interesting to see how many families pull their kids from South due to the lack of leadership and irresponsible behavior from Principal Lee and Parvey.