October Newsletter and Organization of Classes

I have posted my October newsletter for your viewing (hopefully) pleasure. It can also be viewed from our district's home page.

One topic that I have posted relates to class size and composition. As readers may know, Section 76 of the School Act lays out the requirements in relation to class size (maximum size and highest allowable average for kindergarten and grades 1-3) as well as class sizes beyond which teachers must give consent (grades 4-7) or be consulted (grades 8-12) and highest allowable averages for grades 4-7 and 8-12. The Class Size Regulation provides direction for how those calculations are to be made and defines what is meant by consultation. The Act also requires principals to consult with teachers for classes which have more than 3 students with identified special needs and for whom an Individual Education Plan is required under the IEP Order.

As I said in my newsletter, we do our best to allocate resources to schools in ways that optimize programs and services, yet we still find ourselves with some classes that are rather large and complex, and we do what we can to support our teachers and support staff in serving the needs of a wide range of students. All of the work of class organization and principals' consultation with teachers has led to the preparation of a spreadsheet report that lists all of the classes in our school district along with for each class the number of students, the number of identified students with special needs, and a rationale for any class over 30. This report will be submitted to the Minister then posted to our district website and to a Ministry website by the end of October as required.