On the first day of school, Brian Litvinoff walked into his English 4 honors class with a smile on his face because he had Michael Kelly as his teacher. But his smile slowly faded. He could barely make it through rows of tightly packed desks to get to his seat. And when the lesson started, hearing Kelly over 44 students was harder than trying to get to his desk.
“It was like anchovies in a can,” Litvinoff said. “Kelly still managed to maintain the noise level down for the most part, but that’s because he stated stern rules.”
According to Kelly, having so many students in a class is a great disservice to the students. “It has become an example of warehouse education,” Kelly said. “Students are being stored in rooms and expected to learn.”
And Kelly isn’t the only teacher to have over 25 students in a core class.
Math teacher William Taillon has 38 students in his 4th period Algebra 1 class. The excess amount of students in math classes could be due to it being down one math teacher compared to last year.
Being short one math teacher is a big concern to the math department. “The question is not whether we can find a qualified teacher, Stein said. “But rather we haven’t been given the permission to hire them.”
According to The New York Times article, “Tight Budgets Mean Squeeze in Classrooms,” published in 2011, millions of public school students are seeing class sizes swell because of budget costs and teacher layoffs.
This is the first year in which Florida schools will not be fined for having more than 25 students per core class. The district expects schools to take the money they would pay for the fee and use it to pay teachers to open up an extra class.
According to an article in the Miami Herald published in 2014 lawmakers cut the number of “core” classes covered by the class size limits by nearly two-thirds four years ago. The Herald said the Florida Department of Education even gives districts guidance on how to circumvent the requirements in a class size.
The classes that are included in the size amendment for core classes are regular and honors English one through four, Geometry, Algebra 1, Math for College Readiness, biology, U.S. History, World History and Economics.
No new teachers have been hired, according to Harley, but extra teaching supplements for every core subject have been added. In a few weeks, Harley has a meeting with the District regarding budgets. If the District approves the new budget, there is a possibility more classes will be opening.
“At this point, we did the best we could to level classes, but it does not accommodate every student’s schedule,” Harley said. “It is not as easy as people think.”