Show Your Support For Smaller Class Sizes For Wallingford-Swarthmore School District: Policy Revisions Needed

Please add another 5th grade class to NPE. 26-27 students per class benefits no one. We do not want the students or teachers to suffer.

Newsweek magazine states that class sizes at WSSD are small. The same media reports that rank WSSD as 17th in the state of PA state that class sizes are small. 25-27 students in a class is unacceptable; please do not set the children up for failure on future state tests or when they compete against other kids in the district who socioeconomically lucked out with a smaller class size, longer face time with a teacher and better shot. Thanks!

NPE definitely needs to add another 5th grade teacher . These same kids have had overcrowding their entire elementary experience.

Thank you for advocating!! ;)

If possible smaller size classrooms are always better to get the personal experience..especially for children who have special needs that are integrated into the classroom it's easier to manage. The school itself has been fantastic overall, I think this would be a nice thing to add to it.

Maximum class size limit should be set and enforced across all grades and ALL elementary schools in the same way. If we want top notch, high level education for our kids then we need to keep the class sizes down. This goes beyond the kindergarten class at SRS. This should be of concern for every parent in every elementary school in this district.

I am told that the superintendent of Springfield caps kindergarten and first grade classrooms at 15. Let's do that here.

Agreed: it might be time to look at redistricting if the largest K class at either of the other two elementary schools is the only one as large as the smallest at SRS. The overcrowding does not improve at the upper grades where fourth graders come back to their classroom excited that they had a desk in math class too, because the math classroom is so overcrowded not everyone gets a desk every day. If 25 is workable, imagine how much better it would be if they were all at 20. I am pretty sure those K classes with 17 have an aide, too, so you are talking about ratios of 1: 12.5 and 1:8.5. That's a big difference with 5 year olds.

The kindergarten classes at SRS are definitely too large this year. It only takes one visit to the classroom to see how difficult it is for one teacher and one aide to meet the needs of so many children at widely varying degrees of social and academic development. I don't understand why SRS, with a much larger student enrollment, cannot open additional classes as needed. It should be a budgetary priority. Research has shown that kindergarten is a critical year in the lives of children.

Class sizes should be held uniform whenever possible across the three elementary schools in the district

keeping class size under 20 in the primary grades and under 25 in elementary grades is critical not only for pedagogical reasons but social reasons. Adding another body (aide) to an overly large class only makes the teacher's job harder. My children are grown and out of the schools; I would pay higher taxes but only if SRS were treated fairly...a rare thing in this district.

Manageable class sizes - particularly for our youngsters - seems to me to be critically important to the development of our children. While I already pay quite a lot in school taxes, I would be happy to pay more to ensure that our children receive the attention that is needed during their early childhood education years for optimally prepare them for the many challenges of the future.

That is not possible if the number of students in a grade are not the same or conveniently divisible . Look at what you have, not what someone else has. Swarthmore elementary is an outstanding school.

I do think you are underestimating the teachers. Of course they can get to know 25 students.

Don't each of the classrooms have aides ? It seems from looking at the numbers and your goal is to have classes equal to WES then you: Hire a half day kindergarten teacher if you have a room. Send some of the children to WES...trust me they will survive. Redistrict. Hire an additional aide. Or recognize that 25 with an aide is a very workable situation where children can learn.

SRS seems to get more kids and less teachers across the board. We need to have the ability to voice our concerns before these decisions are made.

Please don't limit accelerated classes, due to class size.

While volunteering at SRS, I see how frustrating and stressful having too many students is on our teachers and how this impacts our children. It also makes me sad to see the kids rushed through their activities and the teachers spread too thin to address all of the kids' needs as they arise.

Our son is in Kindergarten class at SRS. Teachers and kids have not been able to really do the best they can with so many kids in the room. How cn we ask the teachers to really get to know our children with so many children and only in 2.5 hours a day. Please make the change our district is to good for this to happen again

kindergarten at SRS was too large this year!