By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
The looks on the faces of the members of the Burlington Area School District School Board were grim.
Parents of children from the district’s highest-rated elementary school were visibly – and vocally – upset.
And by the end of the night, the solution that the School Board approved to address elementary school class sizes seemed to please no one.
The School Board approved by a 5-2 vote Monday night to cap class sizes in kindergarten through fourth grades over the next few years, starting this fall with kindergarten and first grade.
Board members Rosanne Hahn and Kevin Bird voted against the proposal, which would cap 4-year-old kindergarten classes at 18 students, 5-year-old kindergarten at 23 and first grade at 24.
In following years, second grade classes would be capped at 25 students, while third and fourth grade would be capped at 26.
Superintendent Peter Smet explained that if classes were larger than the maximum, new students would be reassigned to other schools in the district that hadn’t met the maximum class size. Depending on transportation needs, those parents could have a say in where their child would go.
However, from there, a lottery system would be put in place. That policy will immediately impact at least one student at Winkler School.
According to the lottery formula, students that do not reside in the enrollment area of a given school would be selected for the lottery first. Step two would be drawing students for a lottery who did not have siblings at a given school.
The proposal – and its acceptance – came two weeks after the issue was addressed in a special board meeting. At that meeting, Smet outlined about five different options that could be pursued, including an operating referendum to raise taxes to hire more staff and accepting the class sizes as they were.
The proposal he brought to the board Monday night was a combination of a several options. Smet said he looked at Waterford, Elkhorn, Whitewater, Delavan, Fort Atkinson, West Bend and Mukwonago grade schools to see what those districts were doing. The answers ranged from living with the class sizes to moving teachers between schools to parents getting the option to move students.
‘No real good solution’
No one in the room expressed a positive reaction to the solution. School Board members, in large part, said they really didn’t have any choice.
“There’s no real good solution to this thing,” said Board Member Todd Terry.
Board President Jim Bousman pointed out that a solution had to be sustainable – and equitable between the four different elementary schools.
He added that he sensed disappointment in the room.
“This may not be the outcome you’re looking for, but it’s the best we can do at this time,” he said.
The parents in attendance – all from Winkler School – made it clear they had expected more. In the past, Winkler parents had been successful in lobbying for added staff when class sizes grew too large.
Dawn Petges said she was disappointed that there was only one proposal to the board.
“You’re giving them just one pile of crap to choose from,” she said. Bousman did point out that there were five original proposals, with the staff recommending what came before the board Monday night.
“To me, it’s disheartening,” said Kristine Gohlke-Lairy. “I really expected more.”
Another parent accused Smet of going out of town on vacation last week. When Smet said he was not – he had said last week he was at a conference early in the week – the woman said, “Well, that’s what we heard.”
Bousman also said it seemed to him the attitude of the parents was against the other three elementary schools – Waller, Lyons Center and Cooper.
Bonnie Crist said, “We don’t think less of the other schools. But we love Winkler.”
Weighing the schools
All four elementary schools within BASD are meeting, exceeding, or “significantly” exceeding expectations on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Report Cards – based on the 2013-14 school year results.
Winkler rated the highest at 85.9 points out of 100. Lyons was next at 82 points, while Cooper was at 73 points and Waller at 71. Any number at 73 or higher exceeds expectations, and 83 or higher “significantly exceeds.”
Winkler and Lyons had the lowest student population for the given year, with Lyons at 133 students and Winkler at 174. Cooper had 382 students and Waller 362.
Winkler also had the lowest number of students on free and reduced lunch (31.6 percent).
Waller, meanwhile, had the highest number of students with disabilities (25.4 percent) and economically disadvantaged (58.8 percent). It also had the largest percentage of students who fall outside of the “white/not Hispanic” demographics label at about 39 percent, and the largest number of students who have limited English proficiency (about 20 percent).
Winkler, meanwhile, had the lowest number of limited English proficiency students in the district (just .6 percent) and the largest number of white/not Hispanic students (90.2 percent).
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