By B.C. Manion
The overall enrollment for Pasco County public schools is close to what district officials projected – but the district still must balance out individual classes to meet the state’s strict class size limits.
At the elementary level, a lot of shifting is being done within schools, said Summer Romagnoli, district spokeswoman. A fourth-grade teacher, for instance, may have to teach a second-grade class.
Veterans, Sand Pine and Seven Oaks are among the elementary schools that are doing a lot of internal shifts, Romagnoli said.
At the high school level, the district has asked teachers to volunteer to take on an additional period to reduce the impact on students. The teachers will receive a stipend, but must give up their planning period.
Some high school students in classes that are exceeding the caps are shifting to online classes, Romagnoli said. Numerous students at Wiregrass Ranch and Wesley Chapel high schools are going that route.
“We’re trying to manage the impacts,” Romagnoli said, but the district realizes these disruptions are hard on people.
“The teachers – they’ve bonded with these students and the kids have bonded with the teachers,” she said.
Superintendent Heather Fiorentino addressed the class size issue in a Sept. 10 letter sent home to parents.
“Under the current law, the district does not have the flexibility to make common sense decisions about the best placement of students if those placements jeopardize a school or classroom’s class size status,” Fiorentino states in the letter.
The state will audit class size in October and if even a single class in the district exceeds the class size limit, the district will be deemed out of compliance and will face severe financial penalties, the superintendent informed parents.
“We understand the importance of continuity for students, and have tried everything within our power to minimize the disruption in classrooms. Unfortunately, the classes that exceed their limits must be addressed in order to comply with the law,” Fiorentino added.
“I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause your child or family,” she concluded.
Florida voters will decide in November on a proposal to soften the class size cap they approved in 2002. In the meantime, schools still must comply with the law.
The district will offer two class size clinics for principals this week to help them deal with some of the challenges posed by the class size issue, Romagnoli said.
On a brighter note, the district’s enrollment is much closer now to its projections that it was on the fifth day of school. The 20th day count showed the district down just 90 students.
The district remains 774 students short of what the state projected its enrollment would be, Romagnoli said. The good news is that the district based its budget and hiring decisions on its own figures, which have proved to me more accurate, than on the state’s projection.
Across Pasco County, low enrollment is forcing at least one teacher from a half-dozen schools to be reassigned.
