With just days to go until the looming deadline, the Palm Beach County School District only has a handful of classes left to reduce in size to meet state-mandated class-size limits.
In the past month, the school district has gone from having more than 11,000 classes that were over the limit to having just 76 classes that were too big on Tuesday, said Chief Financial Officer Mike Burke.
State law limits the size of core classes such as English and math to 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 students in fourth through eighth grade and 25 students in high school.
The district must do a count of how many students are in each core class by Friday and submit it to the state Department of Education. That count must show that all core classes in the district comply with the limits. If not, the state could fine the district by withholding state money for each student over the limit, roughly $6,000 per child.
School board members have spent a total of about $26.5 million to meet class-size limits. The plan involved creating 332 new teaching positions, mostly at the elementary school level, and paying 1,200 middle and high school teachers a supplement of $22.50 per day to teach an extra class period.
As late as Sept. 27, only 59 schools had all their classes in compliance. By Tuesday, 172 schools were in compliance, leaving only 10 public schools that had to reduce the size of the remaining 76 classes, Burke said. He says he is confident the district will completely meet the limits by Friday .
News By:
palmbeachpost.com
In the past month, the school district has gone from having more than 11,000 classes that were over the limit to having just 76 classes that were too big on Tuesday, said Chief Financial Officer Mike Burke.
State law limits the size of core classes such as English and math to 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 students in fourth through eighth grade and 25 students in high school.
The district must do a count of how many students are in each core class by Friday and submit it to the state Department of Education. That count must show that all core classes in the district comply with the limits. If not, the state could fine the district by withholding state money for each student over the limit, roughly $6,000 per child.
School board members have spent a total of about $26.5 million to meet class-size limits. The plan involved creating 332 new teaching positions, mostly at the elementary school level, and paying 1,200 middle and high school teachers a supplement of $22.50 per day to teach an extra class period.
As late as Sept. 27, only 59 schools had all their classes in compliance. By Tuesday, 172 schools were in compliance, leaving only 10 public schools that had to reduce the size of the remaining 76 classes, Burke said. He says he is confident the district will completely meet the limits by Friday .
News By:
palmbeachpost.com
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