Diane Knight
s
How will you work to reduce class sizes?
Our priority must be on achieving optimal class sizes, and using the money already budgeted for class size reduction in proactive ways. Let me explain:
In last year’s budget, we had 118 Full-Time Equivalent positions (FTEs) already included for the purpose of class size reduction. Alpine School District chose to allocate those FTEs to “hot spots”—areas of urgent need—as they arose. While that might sound reasonable, the reality is far from ideal.
Teachers were often hired only days before school started—or even weeks after. Is that really supporting our teachers? Is it good for students when their learning environment is disrupted after they’ve already built rapport and routine?
Consider this: five-year-olds being told after six weeks in the same classroom that they’ll now have a new teacher. Or my granddaughter’s junior high math class where 40 students vied for fewer desks—racing to class just to get a seat. This isn’t acceptable. And the worst part? The money was already in the budget.
We need to shift from reactive to proactive. Let’s allocate FTEs to “warm spots” before they become blazing infernos. It’s about foresight, planning, and treating educators and students with the respect they deserve.
Even more concerning is that in the upcoming year’s budget, the district eliminated 25 of those FTEs, claiming they weren’t needed. We had an opportunity to use that funding differently—like changing the FTE formula so we always round up.
What does that mean?
Say you have 112 students, and the ideal class size is 25. When you divide 112 by 25, you get 4 teachers with 12 extra students left over. With the current formula, we round to the nearest whole, and since 12 is less than 50% of 25, we round down. This means we distribute those 12 extra students across the 4 classes, making each class start with 28 students. That’s 3 students above the ideal for every teacher—right from day one.
In the current Alpine School District, it would have cost 15 FTEs to change the formula so we can always round up. Instead of eliminating 25 FTEs, we could have used 15 of them to make a huge difference in class size and teacher morale.
Remember, the money was already in the budget. Let’s be proactive in how we use it.