By Andy Sevilla
Within thirty days of surpassing 22 students in any class with one teacher, school boards are to request classroom waivers, per state rules.
Three weeks into the school year and with 18 classes across four campuses over the state recommended student-teacher ratios, Hays CISD board members are preparing to approve requests for waivers, though some voiced interest in hiring more teachers.
“By my math it seems pretty reasonable to hire a third grade teacher and a fourth grade teacher for (Elm Grove Elementary),” trustee member Meredith Keller said at the Sept. 15 meeting.
Four of the five fourth grade classes at Elm Grove Elementary are over the 22:1 student to teacher ratio called for by the state, with one classroom housing 25 students. The remaining overcrowded classroom sit with 24 students each.
One fourth grade classroom at Elm Grove is at the 22:1 ratio, but officials said a student would be moved into that classroom to help alleviate the one with 25 students. The move would effectively require classroom waivers for all fourth grade classes at Elm Grove Elementary.
Hays CISD Superintendent Mike McKie said classroom sizes are ever-changing as students enter and leave the district daily. Officials said if students are shuffled around from overcrowded rooms to those within targeted numbers, that balancing would only require requesting 13 classroom waivers, as opposed to 18.
“Why wouldn’t they be balanced already?” asked board vice president Holly Smith-Raymond. “I would think that the administration’s approach would be to come to us asking for the least amount of waivers possible.”
Last year, Hays CISD requested eight waivers, officials said. With the impending residential growth expected soon in the district, some board members questioned why not hire teachers now, as opposed to later in the school year.
Deputy Superintendent Carter Scherff said it’s difficult to gauge what grade level children will be in who take up residence in subdivisions that are building out.
“I don’t know whether we’re going to grow in first grade, second grade, third grade or what,” Scherff said. “So I think the purpose of doing waivers is for us not to spend the money. But I think probably that based on the housing, that we’re going to see additional growth at Elm Grove (Elementary) and probably a number of our other schools, too.”
Raymond pointed out that if an additional fourth grade teacher was hired at Elm Grove Elementary, the student to teacher ratio could be lowered to between 19 and 20 students per classroom.
Dr. Kim Pool, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, said the district established thresholds for when to hire a new teacher, adding that when a grade level reaches that threshold in every class, then a teacher would be added.
“I would have to do that before that happened, because I think there are several cases where we could be adding a teacher arbitrarily without hitting that threshold that we already established,” Pool said.
McKie said the district’s self-imposed “hard cap” is 24 students per a one-teacher classroom.
On the Facebook page of the Hays Educators Association, the local branch of the Texas State Teachers Association, a posting about the issue appeared around 10:20 Monday night, saying, “Parents and teachers need to let the Board know that following the state mandate (or even having smaller class sizes) should be a priority!”
Board members also discussed the possibility of including blended classes, where a teacher could instruct second and third graders or third and fourth graders in the same classroom, as a way of alleviating overcrowding. The district has utilized that method in the past.
The board will take action on classroom waiver requests at its Sept. 22 meeting.