Course sections added to ease classroom crowding, provide opportunities for more than 1,000 students
Things are looking up for hundreds of middle and high school students who started the year in unusually crowded classes or were unable to enroll in their desired classes at all.
Right before the school year began, several teachers were added at elementary schools to shrink some of the largest classes. Now that the school year is underway and enrollment at secondary schools has stabilized, middle and high schools are getting similar relief.
The school board has authorized adding 3 extra full-time teaching positions at middle and high schools, spending the remaining funds it had reserved for board priorities (essentially the board’s “fix-it” fund). The board previously had taken action to add 7 teaching positions at elementary schools to reduce unusually large class sizes, as well as one position to support special education relief.
Two middle schools, Arts & Technology Academy and Kennedy, and two high schools, Churchill and South Eugene, are receiving additional staffing. These four schools saw significantly higher than expected enrollment this fall, resulting in very large class sizes and some students being turned away from enrolling in overfull classes.
The extra staffing is being targeted to reduce exceptionally overcrowded classrooms by adding course sections, mostly in core subjects. Well over 1,000 students in the four schools will benefit from a class size reduction.
The impact of even a small addition of staffing is widespread because it takes just a fraction of a full-time teacher to add each course section. For example, by adding one-fifth (.2) of a full-time teaching position in science, Kennedy Middle School will reduce 8th grade science class sizes from 39 to 31. At Churchill High School, adding a section of Algebra II will take one-twelfth (.08) of a full-year teacher per term to shrink class sizes, some currently in the 40s, to an average of 32 students.
These changes make an enormous difference for the hundreds of students and dozens of teachers in the affected classrooms. Although there aren’t enough funds available to address every oversized class in the district, some of the most extreme situations have been resolved.
More information:
Approved middle & high school staffing additions
Related article:
Staffing added to reduce elementary class sizes
