Dear School Board Members, Superintendent Fisher & Principal Harker,

We, the parents and concerned community members of the class of 2031, humbly request that you continue supporting 5 sections, maintaining small class sizes, for the class of 2031 for the next two school years.

Winterquist School has a history and tradition of delivering excellent education, largely in part to our small class sizes allowing early teacher interventions. Maintaining smaller class sizes allows our teachers the time necessary to nurture each and every child and continue the education we have come to expect as Eskomo parents. We believe a precedent was set when the class of 2025, a group of 106 kids, were enrolled at Esko. At that time, each and every one of you stood behind those kids regardless of the cost and maintained class sizes below our district target through the end of 3rd grade. We are all aware how fast the Esko community is growing and we feel that starting a school year at 26 kids per section, when our district target is 24 kids per section, seems short-sighted and a detriment to all of those children.

We are including a copy of Project Star. Project Star is a research study that was done over the course of 3 years and emphasizes the importance of class size in primary education. It supports our request and explains how detrimental a class size of 26 students would be, especially in the primary years. A decision to increase the class size for these children while they are still learning to read would cause ramifications for the rest of their school career.

Thank you for your time,

Concerned friends and family of the Esko Class of 2031