Elementary school class sizes in Bedford will be a little smaller than normal during the coming school year.
But the alignment will only require hiring four new teachers on one-year agreements, School Superintendent Philip Conrad told the School Committee at its virtual meeting Monday.
And all auxiliary spaces used for classrooms this year – libraries, art, and music rooms — will be back in their intended purposes.
Conrad said the smaller class populations “will allow us to do some academic recovery in-depth, and social-emotional learning,” Conrad said. “We really will be able to support our students where they are, and scaffolding for them the appropriate grade-level instruction that they need.”
During many meetings in the winter and spring, the superintendent and School Committee planned for expanding the number of classrooms in Davis and Lane Schools to accommodate social-distancing requirements.
But academic recovery, facilitated by lower student-teacher ratios as always a companion piece. And now state and local guidelines do not include distancing.
All rooms in kindergarten through grade 5 will be populated below Bedford guidelines, Conrad said. Kindergarten and first grade will be in the range of 17 to 18 children, second grade around 18, and grads 3-5 between 18 and 20. The average for all six grades is 18.8 students per room. The normal maximum is 24.
“Parents should understand this is a one-year model,” committee member Ann Guay stated.
Asked by committee member Dan Brosgol about projections for kindergarten and grade one in 221-22, Conrad said the numbers are 178 and 174, respectively. Brosgol was surprised, recalling earlier conversations when it was speculated that grades could break the 200 mark because of families who withdrew students from the public schools during the pandemic year.
Conrad also noted that the CASE collaborative has asked to contract its space use from three classrooms to two in Davis School. “A year from now we will be able to offer them the third classroom. We feel it’s important to have the collaboratives in our buildings,” Conrad said.
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
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