Administrators plan teaching-assistant support for larger elementary classes at start of school year

At the Aug. 27 Board of Education meeting, administrators reported monitoring elementary class sizes and said a few sections were approaching 26 students. Because of timing — the school year was about to begin — administration recommended assigning teaching assistants (TAs) and other support staff rather than attempting to create new sections or hire full-time classroom teachers immediately.

Dr. Dabrowski told trustees that the board previously authorized measures to address class-size thresholds (27 or higher) and the district will use TAs in affected classrooms as an interim mitigation because splitting sections so close to the start of school would be disruptive. “Ideally, that would be making the class sizes smaller, but as we said, at this juncture, it never works out well when you try to break up a class three days before we’re opening,” he said. He added administrators would continue to monitor numbers and could return to the board if additional steps were needed.

Administrators said they will recall some previously accessed staff — SCAs, monitors and teaching assistants — at the next board meeting to formalize assignments. No vote was required; the board was informed of the staffing plan.