Dear 2nd Grade Parents:

A reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday at 6 p.m., there will be a meeting in the Crest View cafeteria to learn more about the issues regarding fall enrollment of 89-90 2nd graders at Crest View. I have attached an agenda and will hand out copies at the meeting. Bring your questions and ideas! Let me know if I missed something. I have also attached this email as an attachment in case it gets mangled enroute.

To me there are three core issues to address tomorrow based on class sizes of 29-30: What impact is there on individualized instruction? And based on the levels of ESL and special education needs, is Crest View receiving enough resources to give teachers enough tools to effectively teach? What can we do to get more resources to teachers?

A few corrections to note in my previous email that included a lot of background information from Kristi Anderson. I identified her as Kristi Williams by mistake and apologize. In Kristi’s first point, she gave some enrollment numbers for Flatirons that actually belong to Foothill Elementary. Flatirons has 65 second graders and 2.5 teachers assigned. Foothill has 89 second graders and four teachers assigned. We will get the most up-to-date counts at the meeting, I’m sure.

For a comparison of class sizes at all BVSD elementary schools (all schools actually) as of 09-02-05, by grade, open this link: BVSD Enrollment Count 09-02-05

With the help of Margot and Bill Brown, there is a blog/information site in early development that is dedicated to information, comments and feedback gathered and contributed about this topic. Please feel free to comment and contribute. The site is at www.crestviewkids.com. I will mention it at the meeting and plan to provide a summary there of what takes place at the meeting.

Is there someone willing to take fairly detailed notes at the meeting tomorrow so we can provide a summary to parents who can’t attend? I’ll try but would like to focus on the discussion and a back-up would help create an accurate summary. Let me know if you can assist. Thanks.

Finally, here are some additional comments and questions received over the weekend. They may be helpful as background for the meeting:

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“Second grade classes that are 50% larger than they were last year when our children were in first grade will also mean that the students will be getting sick more frequently, coming down with worse ailments, and missing more school as a result.”

“Mr. Levine’s letter that came home in the Friday Folders mentioned that 29 students per teacher is the “target” for second grade. I think the word “target” is being misused here. If 29 were really the “target,” we would be rejoicing at having reached our target. But it clearly is not anyone’s goal. If it really was the target, Foothill would have three second grade classes too. (They have about the same total number of second graders that we do, divided among four classes for about 22 per class which is what we would have if we had four classes too.) So we need to call it something else- I think “maximum” is more like it.”

“Mr. Levine also mentioned that they look at the number of “students per teacher.” I think looking at it this way penalizes large schools like ours. For example, instead of waiting for two more students to come before requesting more help, we are asked to wait for six more. Instead, we should look at the total number of students per grade level. 88 second graders should automatically get 4 teachers for 22 per class.”

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Here is an email sent by Kristi Anderson to school board and BVSD administrators on 9/3/05:

——– Original Message ——–

Subject:
Over Crowding Issue – Crest View

Date:
Sat, 03 Sep 2005 16:17:27 -0600

From:
Kristi Anderson

Reply-To:
kristi@abstract.com

To:
Ned Levine – Crest View Principal , Sheri Williams – BVSD Director of School Leadership , Julie Phillips – School Board President , George Garcia – Superintendent of Schools , Darci Mohr – Legal Counsel BVSD

CC:
Dawn Shulz – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Mary Cox – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher , Sofie Trujillo-Shrock – Crest View 2nd Grade Teacher

Dear BVSD Administrators and School Board Members,

Thank you for hanging in there with me while I gained clarity on the subject of Crest View’s overcrowding issue.

Every BVSD elementary school and K-8 with free/reduced lunch totals exceeding 16.4% of their student body population are currently receiving extra assistance, in the form of Target Schools which have small class sizes and/or the IB program. Except for Crest View which has a free/reduced lunch total of 23.6%.

There are 6 elementary schools with free reduced/totals of 11.7% to 16.3% of their student body population. I will call these six schools on Tuesday to find out what their class sizes are this year. If any of you have this information and could forward it to me it would save me time. These schools are: Birch, Eisenhower, Fireside, Gold Hill, Heatherwood and Nederland. These have never been schools that I hear of having large class sizes.

There are 18 elementary schools and k-8’s with free/reduced lunch totals of 0% to 9.2% of their student body population.

This is really the heart of the issue for me and many other parents. When you look at these statistics, why is Crest View being singled out?

We are merely asking for reasonable class sizes based on our demographics. This shouldn’t have to be something we have to fight for every year, it should just be provided to our school.

This is not just a second and fourth grade issue. It is an issue that continuously plagues our school.

The attached document list the above statistics school by school. The information was obtained from the BVSD School Profiles 2004 publication. They were confirmed on the BVSD website.

Again, thank you for your time.

Kristi Anderson
Crest View Parent

BVSD Elementary Schools

Free Reduced

Lunch Lunch Totals

Aspen Creek K-8 5.2 2.1 7.3

Bear Creek 3.3 0.3 3.6

Birch 9.9 4.7 14.6

BCSIS 7.3 0.8 8.1

Coal Creek 4.1 1.0 5.1

Community Montessori 4.1 1.4 5.5

Crest View 20.4 3.2 23.6

Douglass 2.3 0.4 2.7

Eisenhower 10.8 3.2 14.0

Eldorado K-8 1.9 0 1.9

Fireside 8.4 3.3 11.7

Flatirons 4.7 0 4.7

Foothill 3.0 1.3 4.3

Gold Hill 8.8 5.9 14.7

Heatherwood 9.3 3.0 12.3

High Peaks 0.7 0.7 1.4

Horizons K-8 2.6 2.3 4.9

Jamestown 0 0 0

Kohl 8.6 4.3 12.9

Louisville 4.9 2.5 7.4

Mesa 3.5 1.4 4.9

Monarch K-8 1.8 1.7 3.5

Nederland 12.1 4.2 16.3

Peak to Peak Charter 3.2 1.6 4.8

Superior 0 0 0

Target Schools

Columbine 83.2 3.8 87.0

Creekside 39.6 5.3 44.9

Emerald 38.0 8.6 46.6

Lafayette 19.5 8.1 27.6

Pioneer 41.7 12.4 54.1

Ryan 15.7 3.9 19.6

Sanchez 56.9 7.6 64.5

University Hill 54.5 6.9 61.4

*Target Schools have reduced class sizes – They are chosen based on these statistics.

International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program

Whittier IB PYP 26.5 5.5 32.0

Every BVSD elementary school and K-8 with free/reduced lunch totals exceeding 16.4% of their student body population is receiving additional assistance, except for Crest View.

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Thomas P. Gale

tom@mdm.com