Morgan Hill School District officials are preparing to do their
annual student shuffle as the fourth week of school comes to an
end, switching students around to different classes within the same
school to even things out, or to different schools for the same
reason.
Morgan Hill School District officials are preparing to do their annual student shuffle as the fourth week of school comes to an end, switching students around to different classes within the same school to even things out, or to different schools for the same reason.
In grades K-3, there a 20-student maximum per classroom, in order to qualify for state class size reduction dollars. In the past two years, when faced with cost-cutting measures due to budget deficits, School Board trustees have made the decision to keep class-size reductions in place rather than increase class size, which would mean hiring fewer teachers at the K-3 level.
Trustees have said the smaller class size is better for students educationally.
There are also still some substitutes teaching classes, as district officials said the district could afford to hire teachers that may not be needed once the transfers are completed.
Assistant Superintendent Arlene Machado said the district moves as few children each year as possible. Approximately 50 students will be moved this year.
“We do our best to project how many students will be coming,” she said Friday. “We’re afraid to move students too early, because then they may have to be moved a second time if a lot of students come in after Labor Day. This year, we really didn’t get many students after Labor Day, but we waited until afterward in case, and Labor Day was late this year. That’s why the timing is what it is.”
Several parents with children in kindergarten at P.A. Walsh Elementary are upset about the timing of the move, four weeks into the year. Their children are being moved because the class has too few students, according to the district, to justify hiring a teacher; the teacher will be moved to fifth grade, where a teacher is needed.
“It disturbs me even more to learn that this happens every year,” said Sharie Webber, whose oldest child is one of the children that will be moved out of the kindergarten class. She is a newcomer to Morgan Hill.
“It seems to me that the district prepares for failure, knowing that they are going to have a problem and deciding to wait and see what happens.
“The lack of communication also bothers me. No one notified us or even told us this was a possibility … Now we have a letter home, asking for volunteers to move. We don’t know what school our child will be attending on Monday.”
Machado said that newly registering are asked to sign a release that explains the situation.
“Every elementary student who enrolls in the district, every parent or guardian, is asked to sign this, which explains that this first class assignment is a temporary placement,” she said. “We had a lot of parents at the enrollment center asking what it was all about, and we explained it to them, but it never makes it easy when they are actually faced with it.”
The district administrators have made the decision, Machado said, not to wait until after Labor Day next year, unless it falls the week after school begins.
At the end of the fourth week of school for Morgan Hill School District students, there were 8,668 students enrolled in the district, with 8,431 in the classrooms. In the high schools, there are 2,377 9-12th grade students, 1,344 students in the middle schools and 4,520 in elementary schools. There are 190 students in special day classes.
Machado said some classes still have to be adjusted, as district officials are in the process of “leveling” them.
The district hired substitute teachers, Machado said, to fill in the gaps until they see how the classes shaped up.
District officials are also looking at transfers between Live Oak High and the new Sobrato High. A list of 45 students wanting transfers remained after School Board trustees voted to grant 29 transfers per school. Most of the transfer requests came from Sobrato students wanting to attend Live Oak for various reasons including sports, as Sobrato only has 9th and 10th grade students this year, family reasons, such as a sibling already attending Live Oak, or proximity.
The number of names remaining on the list was unavailable by press time. An enrollment report will be presented at Monday night’s School Board meeting.
Other issues on the agenda include filling the two-year term left vacant when Trustee Tom Kinoshita resigned in March. The options are to appoint someone or scheduled a costly special election.
The Morgan Hill Board of Education meets Monday at 7pm at the District Office, 15600 Concord Circle. Details: 201-6000.
