Class Size Update

After many heated discussions last Spring about a potential change in policy regarding class size, some of you may be wondering just how many children enrolled in Scarsdale’s elementary schools this fall. Last March, scores of parents attended the Scarsdale Board of Education meeting to press the Board to maintain class size caps of 22 students in grades K-3 and 24 students in grades 4-5. Though the Board had not discussed lifting the caps, they were considering allowing one or two additional students beyond the capped number to join elementary school classes if additional students moved in during the summer. The Board anticipated that having this flexibility would prevent them from having to hire an additional teacher to accommodate one or two children. Parents objected loudly and ultimately the Board opted to maintain their current policy.

So, now that it’s September, where does the District stand? Did we have to hire additional teachers to accommodate enrollment? Apparently not. According to School Superintendant Michael McGill, the District did not need to “use all the (teaching) positions we had budgeted and we are two sections below the maximum (number of classes) we planned on. (The district) budgeted 108 (elementary school) sections and we have 107. This is fairly typical. We agonize in May, then find out things are different from what we thought they'd be.”

However, the big bump in enrollment was projected to be at Scarsdale High School, where 13 teaching positions were eliminated through attrition. Scarsdale10583 does not have any information as yet about class sizes for the older students which some feared could be as high as 30 students in some sections.