Superintendent adds teachers to ease overcrowding

LYNN – Superintendent Nicholas Kostan has split several of the city’s most overcrowded classrooms as of Oct. 1, assigning eight and a half of 10 available teaching positions held over from last year.
The closing of the Washington and Fallon elementary schools in June left Kostan and his staff to try and place over 400 students in new schools, a move that was bound to inflate class sizes at several grade levels.
In preparation for the overcrowding issue, the superintendent set aside 10 teaching positions to be assigned at the beginning of the year when enrollment numbers became clear.
Kostan informed the School Committee last week that eight and a half of those teachers had been assigned and several classes had been split.
One half reading specialist position was added to the Marshall Middle School; while elementary schools were the beneficiary of the other eight positions assigned this month.
At the Ford School, Kostan split three third grade classes of 32, 32 and 31 students in to four classes of 24, 24, 24 and 23, and split three second grade classes of 31, 31, 30 to four classes of 23, 23, 23 and 22.
The second grade at the Sewell-Anderson went from one class of 44 to two classes of 22, first grade at the Tracy School was split from two classes of 31 to three classes of 21, 21 and 20 and the third grade at the Callahan School went from three classes of 30, 28 and 28 to four classes of 22, 22, 22 and 20.
The Drewicz School third grade has increased from two classes of 30 to three classes of 20 and the Shoemaker School’s second grade expanded from two classes of 31 including students in the COACH program to three classes of 23, one class of 22 and a class of eight COACH students.
The Cobbett Elementary School added one position in their kindergarten Special Education program, splitting one class of 34 to two classes of 17.
Kostan said he took great consideration in assigning the new positions and spent a considerable amount of time speaking with principals and teachers about potential class splitting options.
“I met with principals and heard their concerns, prioritized the needs of the schools and assigned the teachers to the classes that we felt were in the most need of being split,” he said. “Most of the classes are really not in bad shape considering the circumstances.”
With one and a half positions still in the bank, School Committee members identified some other areas with high enrollment that may need relief, most specifically the second grade at the Brickett School, which has 29 students.
“At this time, the decision has been made to leave it as is,” said Deputy Superintendent Jaye Warry. “We are working with both teachers, and these are two very good teachers, to make it work.”
Although not the official numbers for 2008-09, Kostan did provide some principal head counts for each school that give a general overview of the population of each school.
At the high school level, a total of 4,091 students are enrolled in the city with the largest number, 1,652 at English High School.
The Harrington Elementary School has the highest student count of any elementary school with 610 students, 521 of who are considered minorities.
Overall, the district has 13,410 students, the largest population of which is Hispanic.
In the district, there are 5,893 Hispanic students, 3,692 white students, 2,158 black students, 1,374 Asian students and 23 Indian students.
“If you look at enrollment and class sizes, considering the fact that we had such a significant cut, the sizes are pretty reasonable,” said Kostan.