I’ve just about had it with the local school system. This past year, the district eliminated more than 50 teaching positions, and now Marion Community Schools’ superintendent seems shocked that class sizes are higher. Some elementary schools are up to nearly 40 students per class (what?!).
In today’s Chronicle-Tribune, superindent Jeff Hendrix said that they predicted class size accurately, and then the article goes on to say there were other factors that affected class size. Uh, Jeff… if you predicted class size accurately, there wouldn’t be over 30 students in a classroom and you wouldn’t have to hire back teachers. Don’t blame it on your principal turnover rate (most of the principals gave their notice at the end of this past school year giving you plenty of time to hire new principals to assess their schools’ needs), and don’t blame it on the opening of a charter school in the district. Especially do not blame it on the fact that you let go too many educators and now have to follow a contractual procedure that the school district agreed to.
It also seems ridiculous to me that the school is advertising openings for 14 classroom assistants. By my count, you could hire seven additional teachers for the price of those aides. If you have four classrooms of 35 students (ridiculous!), why not just hire two teachers instead of four aides for those classes? It’d be about the same price, and reduce your class size to approximately 24 students.
And, school board member Mike Roorbach, I’m calling you out. In today’s issue of the Chronicle, you said “I can jump in and try to run the school system, or I can let the administration run the school system and try to hold them accountable.” The paper then noted that you favored the accountability side. Well, Mike, put your money where your mouth is. Having more than 30 students in a class is detrimental to our community’s children and their education. It never should have happened nor should a situation where the school felt it necessary to eliminate 50 teaching positions in one fell swoop. Where’s the accountability, Mike? Where’s the accountability?