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Brandywine
board votes
to waive class-size cap
As it has each year
since the law was enacted, the Brandywine school board voted to
take advantage of its escape clause and exempt the district from
the state mandate to limit class size in kindergarten through
third grade to 22 children. For the first time, however, the
district has complied with the requirement to allocate at least
98% of 'teacher units' to the schools whose enrollments
generated them. This year 34 of the 152 classrooms affected by
the cap are over it, up significantly from 14 of 158 last year.
But 17 of the current ones qualify as meeting it because they
have teacher aides assigned to them. On that basis, Carrcroft
and Harlan have no classes over the limit. Forwood has five
requiring waivers and Mount Pleasant Elementary has four.
Financial officer
David Blowman told the board that 16 classes have 23 students,
11 have 24, five have 25 and two -- at Carrcroft and Lancashire
-- have 26. Average class size in the district is just under 21,
he said. The district has 3,178 students in the covered grades
in its nine elementary schools. After the board voted
unanimously and without discussion at its meeting on Nov. 15,
superintendent Mark Holodick said the district had received four
written objections to granting waivers, but did not elaborate on
what they said. Public notice of the intent to consider waivers
said the required public hearing would be combined with the
meeting's public comment session -- which followed the vote on
the meeting agenda. No one spoke at that time.
The board elected Mark Huxoll vice president succeeding Olivia
Johnson-Harris who moved up to replace Debra Heffernan, who
resigned after being elected to the General Assembly. The board
will appoint someone to fill the vacant seat in January or
February. |