The Upside to Class Size Increases

Since my son entered first grade, the class size for K-3 was 20:1.  It's almost like a sacred cow in the sense that anything larger than that seemed unreasonable.  And as school years started, and we often had classes of 17 or 18, we gloated--to the point that when a new student would arrive midyear we'd lament, as if 19 students would suddenly be the end of the world.

 But this year, our principal stood firm that in a great school like ours, 24:1 would not be the end of the world.  And actually, as the first week draws to a close, I'm seeing a few perks I didn't realize.

My daughter's grade level is now split among three teachers, not four.  So as a "big third grader" she has even more of her friends from the last three years in her same class.   And the school itself has two empty classrooms to use for whatever we choose.

One is becoming our Parent Center.  We've had a bungalow up on blocks for over a year.  The Parent Center is technically on campus, behind cyclone fencing, and we'd all grown resigned to the fact that it wouldn't open in our time with the school.  We started affectionately calling it the "Dorothy House" after the Wizard of Oz.  That's changed.  We have a classroom that we can soon call ours for meetings, classes or anything else we choose.

And the other one, we can dream about: A science center.  A technology center with a smart board.  A second computer lab.  An art studio.  Sky's the limit, really.

I know the cuts aren't done, and there will always be more to do with much less to go around.  But to get through this, I'm going to look at the glass as half-full, and know that my daughter is happy and in a great place, and that she has more friends to back her up.