Cori and Lucas Miles are upset about class sizes for first graders at Cedar Ridge Elementary School. They are parents of a first grade student at the school.
Cori and Lucas wrote the Unit 5 School Board regarding their concerns in a letter dated Aug. 31 , “This afternoon, our six-year old son brought home a rather concerning piece of communication from his school, Cedar Ridge Elementary School.”
This document (that was sent home with the student in his backpack) stated that, “as the district has monitored class size during registration and the beginning of the school year, it has come to our attention that the first grade numbers at Cedar Ridge have recently increased beyond our expectations. Due to building constraints and the recent difficulty filling teaching positions, we are unable to add an additional first grade section at this time.”
The document sent home in the backpack of the first grade student said, “Therefore, to reduce the first grade class sizes at Cedar, we are looking for volunteers to attend first grade at Sugar Creek Elementary or Fairview Elementary for the 2023-2024 school [year]…”
Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle told Cities 92.9 part of the problem at Cedar Ridge is that the district can only offer early enrollment to parents. They can’t require it. Consequently, people being people, many parents do not enroll their children until it is about time for school to start.
The district was aware that Cedar Ridge was “on the bubble” regarding the number of first grade classes that would be needed but felt like they would be okay. Unfortunately more students were enrolled as the school year approached then they had projected.
“Why does Unit Five fail to properly plan on how many students will attend their schools? If it is true that you are blaming the parents for not registering on time, what actions did you take last school year and over the summer to get the word out? Our family registered on time and yet we are the ones being forced to accept an absolutely terrible choice: a huge class size in a Title-1 school or drive our kid clear across town,” said Lucas Miles in a letter addressed to the school board.
Cori and Lucas did not anticipate that many families would be willing to transfer their first grade student out of Cedar Ridge to take Unit five up on the offer. Cori and Lucas thought that a couple of families might take the deal.
Cori said she felt that this proposal was wasting time with the best solution being hiring a new teacher and adding another first grade class at Cedar Ridge. She wanted to see the school advertise for a new first grade teacher at the school.
According to Cori, only one family transferred their first grader to another school and a position for a first grade teacher is being advertised for Cedar Ridge Elementary.
According to Unit Five School Board President Kelly Pyle, after being notified of the concerns of Cori and Lucas, the board was advised that administration was handling the matter and at this point the board is allowing the administration time to address the situation.
On Tuesday Cori spoke to the Unit 5 School Board and said, “I reached out to the Unit Five administration and school board with my concerns. I was provided with timely responses but very limited answers and not to the questions that really mattered in order for me to fully understand the situation.”
For example, Cori asked for information regarding the sizes of 1st grade classes throughout the district. The district did not provide the information.
Instead Cori says she was told by Unit Five Assistant Superintendent Michelle Lamboley, “Your request to review the enrollment numbers of all first grade will likely lead to further questions since you do not have the knowledge of all the factors we consider when determining how to handle enrollment issues.”
Cori then sent a Freedom of Information Act request with Unit 5 requesting the data.
“The numbers that I got were very straightforward, very easy to read, a fourth grader could read that,” Cori told Cities 92.9 in an interview after the meeting as she shared the data with us. “It tells you what the school is and the numbers.”
“So the fact that they tried to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to understand them seemed very odd to me,” said Cori.
“The number one thing I am waiting for is to see if they are able to find a qualified applicant to fill that first grade position,” said Cori. “Hopefully they will.”
“Hopefully they will find someone that has been waiting for the appropriate job or something like that and will come in and they (the district) will be able to add a third general education first grade section, (and) get those class sizes much more manageable and hopefully be able to provide an equitable education to those kids,” said Cori.
Referendum money to address large class sizes?
Also in the letter addressed to the school board in August, Lucas asked the question: “What was the point of the referendum?”
Lucas, in the letter, pointed out that it passed and that he and Unit 5 parents supported it.
“Did it not get directly sold to the community as a way to have lower class sizes? This was brought up several times in the numerous presentations on the referendum that we attended. At no point during referendum discussions was it ever mentioned to us that in order to have our child enjoy the benefit of a regular size classroom (not even a small classroom by standard conventions) would we be required to provide our own transportation to get them to another school across town,” said Lucas in the letter addressed to the school board.
On the unit 5 website it says “If the referendum passes that means: better student to teacher ratio for academic success, resources and support services.”
Recently, school board approved contracts which results in higher pay for staff in the district. The four-year agreement with the Unit Five Education Association (UFEA) states that beginning this upcoming school year, the starting salary for full-time staff will be at least $40,000 and will increase to over $42,000 by 2027. The increase is consistent with the average teacher salary in Illinois.
