District may hire teachers; large class sizes cited
JANESVILLE — The Janesville public schools superintendent is asking for about $180,000 to hire more teachers. The request goes to the school board at its meeting Tuesday night.
Karen Schulte said the teachers are needed to reduce the numbers of students in elementary and middle school classrooms that exceed or threaten to exceed the school board’s class-size policy.
The money would come from the Fund 10 balance, which is money set aside for unforeseen emergencies, among other purposes.
Schulte said Friday she wants to hire the teachers as soon as possible.
The teachers hired would be limited-term employees. One would be a fourth-grade teacher at Adams School, which has classrooms of 30 and 31 students. Board policy requires classes at that grade level be no more than 30.
Schulte said the Adams fourth grade exceeded the limit when a student joined the school this week.
Another teacher would go to Van Buren Elementary School’s fifth grade, which has two classrooms of 28 and 29 students each. The limit for fifth grade also is 30. Schulte said Janesville has had classes that size before, but typically classes are smaller.
A third teacher would be split between Edison and Marshall middle schools, where eighth-grade classes are at or over the board policy of 30 for core academic classes.
The rest of the allocation, the equivalent of 0.13 teacher, would increase teaching hours in physical education, music or art.
Edison’s eighth grade has 240 students and eight teachers of core subjects, for an average 30 students per class. At Marshall, 11 teachers are assigned to 333 eighth-graders, for a 30.27 average.
“I believe in order to fulfill the board goals of higher student achievement, teachers need manageable class sizes,” Schulte wrote in a memo to the board.
Schulte went on to say that many students in the large classes have disabilities or are not native English speakers, putting extra demands on teachers.
The Adams fourth grade includes 10 students with a disability and nine English language learners, or 31 percent of the fourth-grade students, Schulte wrote.
Van Buren Elementary School’s fifth grade includes seven students with a disability, or 12 percent of the fifth-graders.
At Edison, 34 eighth-graders have disabilities and 17 are English language learners, or 21 percent of the total.
Marshall Middle School’s eighth grade includes 44 students with a disability and 20 English language learners who combine for 19 percent of the eighth-grade enrollment.
Schulte said she considered shifting resources to handle the large classes, but no scenario was found to be worthwhile.
IF YOU GO
The Janesville School Board meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Educational Services Center, 527 S. Franklin St. The public is invited to speak. Speakers normally are limited to 3 minutes.
Nov 9, 2009 at 11:01 a.m.
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My guess would be that the $180,000 isn't just for teacher salaries. If the district is creating more classes they may need more supplies, which are costly.
Nov 9, 2009 at 9:57 a.m.
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As the tax levy goes up the amount of children will reduce.
The teachers union is pushing for three more employees to pay dues in the short term but will cost hundreds of district employees their jobs in the future.
* I would not plan on retiring from the school district.
Nov 9, 2009 at 12:32 a.m.
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Thank you Sluggo and badger4life for understanding what I was trying to say.
To clarify a little more, never said it was the student's job, but obviously if they are not listening to what the teachers are bringing up, why not hear what a few students have to say.
A service provided, yes, but what quality of service from overworked teachers dealing with 58-60 pre-teen students in a crowded pod room setup with not much space to move around or get the extra few minutes a student needs for help, having to be a library tone or listen to the noisier 3rd graders 5 ft. away, but oh yea who needs to hear about that.
truth1 you are a joke, just by your statement, bash a teacher that is very compassionate,listens to what the students have to say, and cares enough to share it with the school board. Isn't that what the listening sessions are all about?? Anyway, I think changes need to be made to benefit our children.
Nov 8, 2009 at 5:40 p.m.
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...I was responding to sluggo
Nov 8, 2009 at 5:39 p.m.
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The teachers, administration, and school board have JOBS, the students are there to have a SERVICE provided to them, not to see to it that the others' get their jobs done properly.
Nov 8, 2009 at 4:08 p.m.
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It sounds like they definitely need to hire more teachers. However, I'm a little shocked that each of these schools has enough empty classroom space to make these changes. Is this true at many of our schools? If so, will the board need to look at closing a school for next fall?
Nov 8, 2009 at 2:32 p.m.
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$180,000 seems high for 3 and a .13 teachers for only the remainder of the year.
Nov 8, 2009 at 10:09 a.m.
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Truth1- You may be partially right, but unfortunately the teachers and students are "in the trenches" and have first hand knowledge of what is needed. From what I've seen and in my opinion, the current school board does very little to listen to teachers and their concerns. Look at the current contract negotiations. The teachers haven't even mentioned money yet, but just want to talk about contract language and working conditions. However, the schoolbooard won't even listen to them, just like they didn't listen to the student reading the persuasive letter.
Thank goodness that Dr. Schulte has stepped up and listened. I sure hope the vote is a no brainer at the next meeting.
Nov 8, 2009 at 8:14 a.m.
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It's not ridiculous truth, it's democracy - and brave - good for her and her teacher. 30+ students in a classroom - that's ridiculous.
Nov 8, 2009 at 12:23 a.m.
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Rowdy- Its not the students' job to figure out how to run the school or help do so, its other peoples' jobs to figure out how to properly teach them and run a school properly, thats what they get paid for....What kind of "teacher" has a student go to bat for them at a board meeting? ..Thats just ridiculous.
Nov 8, 2009 at 12:02 a.m.
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Did someone finally decide more teachers are needed?? This issue was brought up a couple weeks ago and my daughter's teacher was pretty much laughed at for bringing this topic up. All because she asked my daughter to read her persuasive paragraph on why more teachers are needed, even the students know that they are not getting the best education possible due to limited time with their teachers, crowded classrooms, just to name a few. I found it absurd to hear that one of the board members stared aimlessly, playing with water bottle, while my daughter spoke. I guess the student's opinion doesn't really matter, it's only their education their talking about.
Nov 7, 2009 at 5:14 p.m.
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This is simply the board trying its best to deal with an impossible problem. How could they know how many people would leave with GM? They did their best to estimate how many retiring teachers to replace. In my opinion (and from the article Dr. Shulte's) they did not replace enough retiring teachers. This is a simple fix, the kids deserve the best. They need to add teachers, there are simply not enough to "move them around".
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