School class sizes pose a problem in Saugus

SAUGUS – High School senior Makeda Sabackik told the School Committee Thursday that school was going well with one exception – one of her honors classes has 32 students.”I find it hard to focus with so many students and my classmates seem to agree,” she said.Sabackik was at the meeting as a student representative, but she managed to hit on the number one topic of Superintendent Richard Langlois’s report.After the first week of school, Langlois told the committee the average class size on the elementary school level is down, but the upper grades are not all faring as well.With just under 3,000 students, Langlois said enrollment figures are just about where they were last June, but he expects they might rise. That might be a problem if the new students are high school-aged, where class sizes average 30 students.Sabackik said many of her friends have encountered the same problem she has, that most of the senior classes have a large number of students.Langlois said if class sizes continue to rise at the high school, they would have to actually hire staff because the rooms simply aren’t large enough to hold any more students.At the Belmonte Middle School, only Grade 8 is relatively low with an average of 24 students to 1 teacher. Sixth-grade classes average 30 students and seventh grade averages 29 students. Langlois also pointed out that the middle school has not made Adequately Yearly Progress in MCAS for two years running and the class sizes are not helping the matter.”Comparability studies with other districts shows this is normal,” he said, regarding the class sizes.Langlois went on to say that while it might be normal compared to other schools, it is not what he believes the district wants or needs.He said, in theory, older students can work within larger class sizes, but he said it’s not a road he wants the district to travel.He is, however, pleased with the class sizes on the elementary level. Kindergarten classes, which are split days, average 15 students, Grade 1 averages 18, Grade 2 has a ratio of 23 students to 1 teacher, Grade 3 drops to 20 students, while Grade 4 tops out at 25 students per class and Grade 5 averages 23 students per class.”Overall we have exceptional class sizes at grades K-5,” Langlois said.