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During the December 9 meeting of the Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) School Committee, Superintendent Brad Crozier provided an update on class sizes as part of a broader budget discussion. SPS currently has 14 sections (or classes) that exceed the district’s class size guidelines. All 14 sections over guidance are in elementary school. (Guidelines here, enrollment updates here) For quick reference, the basic guidelines are:
Kindergarten = 20 students per class
Grades 1 & 2 = 22 students per class
Grade 3-8 = 24 students per class
Superintendent Crozier explained that the district does not automatically add an adult to a classroom when the class size exceeds guidelines. That’s one option available, but not always necessary based on a variety of factors the district considers regarding student needs in a given classroom.
“When and if a class is over guidance, it does not automatically trigger a full-time TA that gets hired for that class. That could be one of the mitigations. One of the things that we look at when considering sort of what to do when a class might be over the school committee guidance, we also look at how many staff are assigned to those particular classes. How many adults are assigned there. We also look at other supports, because there are some schools, based on need, that have higher staff ratios in particular job assignments. Like, a couple of our schools have school support specialists and they really work with increasing academic skills, whereas some of the schools don’t have those school support specialists.”
1:09:00
Crozier went on to say that most of the time there’s already more than one adult assigned to a classroom when it is above guidelines, but told the committee that it would be difficult to provide any data about how SPS is staffing classrooms over guidelines that night.
“Most of the time when we have classes that are over guidance, there’s more than one adult assigned to those spaces for one reason or another. Sometimes that assigned adult is for part of the day, other times its for the whole day. Umm, and so having a breakdown of each class currently and what the number of adults assigned, it is difficult for me to provide that tonight.”
Next school year, the district is forecasting 5 sections over class size guidelines. Three of those would be in first grade, and the other two in fifth grade, according to Superintendent Crozier.
Vice-Chair Meredith Gerson added that the classes exceeding guidelines are typically only exceeding by one or two students. “And as you mentioned last meeting, they’re one or two over guidelines.” She later added “There are no classes projected to be 30 students [inaudible] that much over our guidelines?” Superintendent confirmed that no classes were projected to have 30 students.
Member Mary Stephens voiced concern about the class sizes, particularly at the younger grade levels. She asked if the district knew ahead of time that it was going to have 14 classes over guidelines going into the current school year, as neither Stephens nor Member Karyn Jones were members of the committee when the current fiscal year’s budget was built. Crozier responded:
“I think we knew that, we had a discussion with the school committee about class sizes and it was certainly the school committee’s purview when they were making the choices for FY25 to have some of those classes run a little higher than the guidelines given the tradeoffs they would have had to make last year. But yes, I would say we have had some move-ins. And once the school year starts it’s not always in the best interest to take a class that’s already, you know, had a few months together and split them apart into other classes. So, you know the guidelines are really for budgeting purposes, and they’re not a trigger for something to happen. And, you know, we want to meet the needs of the students and you know, the principals are in constant contact with me when they’re worried about a particular group of students.”
(1:13:50)
Jones had confirmed with Superintendent Crozier that the 14 sections that were over guidelines were all in elementary school grade levels, and Superintendent Crozier added further commentary with regard to middle school:
“Middle school is slightly different because, based on student choice for UA’s, based on the teams, the range varies. And although, what we really try to look at is the home room size, you know we try to keep the home room size at the school committee guidance, which is 24. But, you know, sometimes certain classes go above guidance. We try not to have classes of 27 or 30, those are much higher than what we want, but they certainly go over that number. But I don’t have those class numbers for you tonight.” (1:16:25)
The committee had differing perspectives on class sizes and their impact on student outcomes. Vice-Chair Meredith Gerson deferred to the expertise of the administration, and questioned how much class size mattered so long as the administration wasn’t citing it as a problem: “In all the presentations that we’ve had, not once was it said ‘okay, like this is our path and solution to fix the problem is class size.’ So to take up administration’s time and school committee’s time when the Superintendent and his curriculum experts in-district, and administrators, aren’t saying that that is the problem…” (1:22:50)
Member Karyn Jones added:
“There’s the data, right, but then there’s also this qualitative data that I think teachers themselves could provide, and again maybe nothing changes, but it could just be helpful just to understand how they feel it has impacted them or not, just in how they’re able to teach and connect with the students. Because for a student, this is their only time they’re going to do first grade. You move them through and we kind of have them for their most important years. Once they get to L-S it’s four years, that’s it, and then they’re adults.” (1:27:30)
Member Mandy Sim added that reducing from 14 classes over guidelines this year to a forecasted five classes over guidelines next year was a reduction of 9 classes over guidelines. She felt that demonstrated the dedication of the administration to the needs of the students. (1:31:00)
Chair Burnard, who earlier voiced openness to a future review of class size guidelines, put the class size conversation to bed and moved the committee on to another topic with a closing comment: “I agree with both Meredith and Mandy that, you know, the students’ needs are being met.” (1:31:44)
Much of the discussion pertained to budget decisions that are being made over the course of December. In order to bring all class sizes within guidelines in the next fiscal year, cuts would need to be made elsewhere in the budget. The committee was weighing class sizes alongside other priorities. It does appear that level-service is possible within the guidance that SPS has been provided by the Town, at least based on the latest discussions, but SPS appears to be pessimistic about fitting in new initiatives.
The committee will meet again on Monday for their annual budget hearing, during which the public can provide comment on the budget decisions being made. Take note – it appears residents will have to attend in-person to do so.
