First meeting - March 10 at 215

[RebeccaJames]

Parents are invited to a meeting next Wednesday, March 10, at 2:15 p.m. at school.

A team of teachers and parents will look, pedagogically, logistically, and educationally, at the possibility of multi-age classrooms for our school. So far, more than half of Fall Creek's teachers have volunteered to explore this topic.

From a budget point of view, having multi-age classes allows for a reduction in teaching staff that isn't possible in a school that has only two sections per grade. For instance, if a grade has a section of 17 and a section of 18 - but the superintendent is calling for class size to be 25 to 30 - the two sections in the example would be overlimit at 35. That lack of flexibility in a small school was the original thinking behind the administration's suggestion to consider closing Fall Creek and dispersing its students to other schools.

Many teachers and parents believe there are advantages to multi-age classrooms, as well as challenges. For instance, this could allow looping with students - a teacher could have the same students for two years.

[PeterW]

In looking at the class size numbers Judith Pastel put up on Tuesday night at the Board meeting, the largest Fall Creek class is likely to be Fall Creek's fifth grade, which she had slotted to be one class of 30 kids. It may be worth looking into whether a fourth and fifth grade combined class would be possible. In that case, the purpose would not be to use one less teacher, but rather to reduce class size.