Notice to Elementary Parents

The Shoreline School District’s administrators and school board have proposed a change to the way in which classes are balanced. Sometime in the next week, you may be receiving a notice that your child’s class placement has changed. Perhaps you have already received such a notice.

The district is attempting to avoid class overload costs and balance its budget by creating unbalanced classes within grade levels. For example, in the case of three first-grade classes at a school, there might be two classes with 23 students each and one with 28 students. Teachers believe that unbalanced classes are not good instructional practice, and moreover, feel it is irresponsible to move students – especially elementary students - into new classes in the third or fourth week of school.

The district is claiming that additional certificated staff will address the needs of these large, overloaded classes. Please note that the certificated assistance will only provide help for approximately 20% of the day, leaving the teacher with an overloaded class 80% of the time.
This change has the potential to cause profoundly adverse effects for students both this year and into the future. The Shoreline Education Association is continuing to meet with the district to protest these changes, and I hope that you will join us by contacting school board members to insist that we maintain balanced classes and preserve our tradition of valuing instructional excellence.

Parent action will be imperative in resolving this issue. You are encouraged to contact the following individuals to voice your concerns:

All School Board Members
Brian Schultz
Sue Walker
Marcia Harris