Superintendent Revisits Decision to Reduce Fifth-Grade Class Sizes

As Hauppauge school officials move through budget season, parents and school administrators continue to go back and forth over what is an acceptable class size for next year's fifth-grade class. 

Superintendent Patricia Sullivan-Kriss recommended at the March 27 board meeting that the Board of Education for the 2012-13 school year. This decision has sown seeds discontent with Forest Brook and Bretton Woods parents, who are also begging board trustees to reduce class sizes. 

The superintendent said decision was based on the current fourth-grade class sizes at Pines Elementary School already being at 30 students in it, the maximum under district's contractual limit. The district has already been notified it will have additional students enrolling at Pines next year. 

However, Sullivan-Kriss said she stands behind her decision to not split the fifth-grade classes at either Bretton Woods or Forest Brook Elementary School into additional sections. 

"I shared with the board when in discussion that if the numbers got to a point we need to break a class, we could  if we have additional state aid to support us. We did get the additional state aid, but the numbers are still not to where I would recommend we would break into an additional class," Sullivan-Kriss said Tuesday night. 

Hauppauge Public Schools received an additional $91,169 in unexpected state aid at the last minute for 2012-13 school year, enough to cover the salary of approximately one teacher. However, the additional state aid was put under the district's technology equipment budget line. 

The superintendent explained this was done because New York State has passed legislation that will require the district to have students to complete state testing via computer within a few years, which may require Hauppauge Public Schools to purchase additional computers. 

This did not settle well with Bretton Wood and Forest Brook parents at Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting. Bretton Woods currently has an average class sizze of 27 students in each of this year's fourth grade classes, Forest Brook an average of 28. 

"It’s important for everyone we are using the same criteria for each of the classes in each of the buildings, the enrollment numbers," Sullivan-Kriss said. 

Under the district's contractual limits with teachers, the district allows up to 26 students per class in kindergarten through second grade, and 30 students per class in third grade to fifth grade. Both Bretton Woods and Forest Brook's upcoming fifth-grade class sizes will be within these limits. 

One woman, who declined to give her name, said the district has repeatedly stuckthe district's current fourth-grader, soon to be fifth-graders with larger class sizes than their peers, which she fears will have the children academically behind when they enter middle school. 

The superintendent said if necessary, the district can take money from the technology equipment line to hire a teacher and place the elementary students in smaller classes. That decision, however, will not be made until enrollment numbers are finalized late this summer.