Update to Elementary School Population Issue

I am told that my timeline in the classroom size issue between Bakerville and New Hartford Elementary that I posted was not correct.

My daughter told me (and she is usually right) that the letters for the swing line went out first.  The letters were an attempt to even out the class sizes.  The parents affected by the swing line refused to cooperate, and obtained doctors’ notes.

There were supposed to be two classes at NHES and two at Bakerville from the beginning, as the Board of Ed was told there was absolutely no room at Bakerville for three first grade classes.

After the refusal, the Superintendent attempted to even the sizes out by placing the other first grade class at Bakerville, and that’s when the Bakerville folks got letters about three first grade classes.

Obviously parents at NHES were concerned that their children’s first grade classes would be much larger than the Bakerville classes, and having one first grade classroom in a town of this size in a school that size is not optimum for teachers or students.

So we’re at a place and this is it.  New Hartford Elementary has empty classrooms.  Having only one class at each grade level is not optimum.  Bakerville is pretty much at capacity.  They don’t have room for another classroom.

If any Bakerville parents use Giant Steps Daycare, maybe they would be willing to move their children voluntarily.  You can’t ask for volunteers any other way, unless those parents are willing to transport their children to and from school.  If they’re at Giant Steps, that solves a problem.

Other than that, the swing line needs to be honored.  If these 7 families won’t cooperate, perhaps they wouldn’t mind providing transportation to and from Bakerville School each day so that the bus company could adjust the swing line a little farther.

Just throwing that out for consideration.  And stop banging on the Board of Education.  They had nothing to do with this.