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Plano applies for second round of class size waivers

Published: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 4:16 PM CDT
A request for state class size waivers for 18 elementary class sections was authorized by the Plano ISD Board of Trustees at its Tuesday meeting.


Per the Texas Education Code, classrooms in kindergarten through grade 4 must not exceed 22 students to a teacher. The code does allow exceptions provided the district applies for a waiver for each section that exceeds the maximum number of students.

Fifteen Plano campuses this year are projected to have more than 22 students in at least one classroom at either the second, third or fourth grade level. Three of those campuses will have two sections exceeding the 22-to-1 cap. No sections in kindergarten or first grade will exceed the mandate and require a waiver.

Superintendent Richard Matkin said most of the classrooms in question will press up against the district's own limit of 24 students to a teacher in sections requiring a waiver. If that threshold is crossed at some point, the district will add a teacher, he said.

"Some of these might not ever get the waiver if they go over the counts, because we have some students who start to show up after Labor Day," he said. "So some of these could come off the waiver list."

Last year was the first time the district applied for class size waivers. The action accompanied the laying off of hundreds of employees as a result of a $24 million funding cut due to the statewide reductions in education funding ordered by the 82nd Texas Legislature. The district needed waivers for 52 classrooms at 20 campuses last year.

"We will have a better count as the waivers start coming toward us, but there were very few districts in the entire Metroplex and the state that didn't go over the 22-to-1 cap," Matkin said.

The district will reassess class sizes at the October board meeting if additional enrollment calls for further discussion, Matkin said.

By the numbers:

A campus-by-campus breakdown of which elementary schools will exceed the state's maximum class size in at least one section

Andrews: One third and one fourth grade classroom

Barksdale: One second grade classroom

Beverly: One third grade classroom

Boggess: One second grade classroom

Brinker: One third and one fourth grade classroom

Gulledge: One third grade classroom

Haun: One third grade classroom

Hughston: One second grade classroom

Hunt: One third grade and one fourth grade classroom

Mathews: One third grade classroom

Miller: One second grade classroom

Shepard: One third grade classroom

Skaggs: One second grade classroom

Wells: One third grade classroom

Wyatt: One second grade classroom

Source: Plano ISD

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