New year brings elementary classroom changes in BCISD
Texas Education Agency policies and a delay in the agency’s waiver process are scrambling some Burnet prekindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms when students return from winter break on Jan. 9.
A state waiver is necessary when classrooms are above a 22-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio for more than 30 days, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Rachel Jones explained to DailyTrib.com. A small number of classrooms were above the 22-to-1 ratio at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, but until recently, the TEA waiver process was offline.
“Due to the delayed 2022-23 accountability ratings release, the availability of the 2023-24 class size exception application has also been delayed,” read the TEA website in the first three months of the new school year.
“Back in September, we were prepared to apply for 14 classrooms of (prekindergarten through fourth-grade) waivers had the system been open,” Jones said. “We do not have any information about how the two systems are connected, since class sizes are not a component of the accountability rating system.”
BCISD built its 2023-24 budget around the assumption that prekindergarten through fourth-grade class sizes would be allowed to go up to one student over the state-mandated ratio without having to hire additional teachers. The district has a total of 30 pre-K through fourth-grade classes over the 22-to-1 ratio. Thirteen of them are more than one student over.
The largest pre-K through fourth-grade class roster as of Dec. 15 was 24 students. That was before the approval of additional teachers at the Dec. 18 board meeting.
Pre-K population predictions are usually low because the district has no prior-year numbers to “roll up,” Jones said.
“Many families are new to the area, some are returning from homeschooling, but we do not always know of a major driver for enrollment increases,” she said. “Enrollment has increased a few students at a time over the fall semester in elementary grade levels.”
At the Dec. 18 board meeting, trustees voted to seek a waiver from the TEA now that the process has reopened. They also approved hiring new teachers.
The new year changes include a new kindergarten class at Shady Grove Elementary School in Burnet, while a recently hired teacher at R.J. Elementary School will supplement a third-grade class over the ratio. In the case of the third-grade hire, students will not be pulled out to form another classroom.
“Students are making academic progress with their current teachers,” Jones said. “So instead, the new teacher will assist all the classes of the grade level by pushing into the classroom to help with student groups and pulling out student groups to work at times.”
By doing this, students receive instruction and progress monitoring with a lower student-teacher operationalized ratio, even if the homeroom rosters look to still be a high ratio on paper, she continued.
The state has no mandated ratio for fifth grade, but the district follows the same model as in the lower grades with additional teachers and small groups. A fifth-grade classroom with 27 students has more than one teacher. With an additional hire, the average ratio for that grade level is now 22.6 to one.
“We have been providing support to elementary teachers with large rosters, and we have continued with the plan approved by the board during budget season to work to hire additional teachers,” Jones said.