Nine or ten years ago the school board I served on had to decide to change the student/teacher ratio because of tough finances. When we bumped it up it was by .5 or 1 extra student per class. We did this only after having lowered the student to teacher ratios significantly in previous years.
The ratio increase was an average and as an average it meant that sometimes more than one or two students could be added to a class. I’m not sure how many times the Dixon board has added students to the classroom to stay ahead of statutory operating debt (SOD) but with reports of as many as 45 kids in mainline classes (as opposed to PE and health) it must have happened several times. Now to avoid a four-day school week the District is contemplating the most draconian additions to classrooms ever. Apparently they have the blessing of the teacher’s union for this thanks to Frank Wanner’s much ballyhooed Quality Steering Committee.
I don’t think I’ve recalled the exact name for the Committee because it had a different abbreviation QWL maybe, (Quality work life?). It was Frank Wanner’s special baby and he was very angry when later administrators turned their back on it by never calling a meeting. What it was was a joint committee of teachers and administrators that the Union dreamed up and put into the contract back in the 1980’s or possibly earlier. It was supposed to solve problems jointly with amity and goodwill and give teachers some say. By using it to have teachers do the dirty work of cramming their classes with more kids Dr. Dixon has partly shielded himself from the fruits of his Red Plan. That won’t make doing this any easier:
Duluth school district administrators are recommending an increase of almost three students to the district’s student-teacher staffing ratio to help close a $7 million budget gap.
Three more students in a classroom is a big deal. It will bump some classes up by four, five or six students. God forbid that a class that already has 35 or 36 kids would have to welcome so many additional students.
I’m sure the School Board is desperate to have the voters bail them out by passing an increase in operational levies at the polls next fall. I don’t blame them. Unfortunately, they have so alienated a lot of voters that this will be difficult.
People tend to regard three as a special number. In Christianity it represents the Trinity. In hockey a single player with three goals has earned a hat trick. In baseball three strikes is an out. In bowling three strikes is a turkey. I’d say the School Administration’s recommendation to add three more kids per class should have its own name – something like Red Crow. I hope the school board can digest feathers.
