09/15/09 New Lebanon Children Say,"Gee, It Is Crowded In Here!!!" (Updated)

There's No Class Room

Poor Students In West Side Greenwich Classrooms Are Overflowing With Students

Class sizes anger New Lebanon parents - Greenwich Time

As school officials work to counter enrollment spikes in the public schools, some New Lebanon School parents said their children are getting the short end of the stick in the efforts to control class sizes.

Nearly 125 more students than expected enrolled in public schools this year, according to the latest available figures. To accommodate the increase, school officials have hired more staff, including two employees at the high school and one at both Hamilton Avenue and Glenville schools.

New Lebanon received one new teacher this fall after losing the equivalent of two full-time staffers as part a $4 million reduction in the district's 2009-10 budget mandated by the town finance board. The budget included cutting the equivalent of more than 20 staff district-wide......

Parents Tell Board Of Education To Help With The Flood.....

......New Lebanon's average fifth-grade class size is 27 students, the largest average class size of any grade level at any school in the district, according to the latest data. It also exceeds by one student the district's guidelines.

The school is also home to fourth-grade classes with the largest average class size in the district, at 26 students, the data show. The lower grades fall within the guidelines. The one additional teacher was added to the second grade......

Parent Joseph Pecora Says His Childs School Is Bursting With Students......

.....the larger class sizes in the upper grade levels this school year threaten to erode the achievement gains made in recent years. These gain have come even as New Lebanon routinely scores lower than nearly every other school in the district on standardized exams.

"For you to choose to allow the school to have classes that exceed or match the guidelines ... shows that your intentions are not in line with helping the students at the one school which consistently scores the lowest," Pecora wrote in a letter to schools chief Sidney Freund.

Pecora, who runs Pecora Brothers, a construction company that helped expedite work in the delayed Hamilton Avenue reconstruction, recently met with Freund, but said later he was not satisfied with how it went......

Three Cheers For Joseph Pecora !!!!!!

Where Is The Greenwich Board Of Education?????

.....Several attempts to contact Freund were unsuccessful Monday. Messages were also left with Kim Eves, the district's communications director, and Gene Nyitray, principal of New Lebanon School......

New Lebanon Teachers Face Challenges That Are Very Different From Their Old Greenwich And Riverside Colleagues.....

.....New Lebanon is one of three so-called "Title I" schools in Greenwich, along with Julian Curtiss and Hamilton Avenue schools, that receive federal grants because many of their students receive free or reduced lunches.

Last school year, it was considered the most racially imbalanced school in the district, with minority students accounting for 58 percent of the school population......

Maybe, The Well To On The Eastside Of Town Could Do The Right Thing And Help Out Some Of The Weakest And Most Disadvantaged Members Of Greenwich Society.....

.....Pecora also worries the larger class sizes could make it harder to attract non-minority students to reduce the imbalance, however.

Pecora said that a high-performing school like Riverside could give up one teacher to New Lebanon and still remain comfortably within the class-size guidelines.......

Thanks A Lot Nancy.....The Greenwich Board Of Education moved from two New fifth grade classes down to one.....

......In recent school years, the district would have been required to hire another teacher for New Lebanon's oversized fifth grade. This spring, however, the school board eased those rules, shifting from hard caps to more flexible guidelines to give school officials more leeway to deal with a meager budget and a rise in enrollment. ....

Greenwich Time Reporter Colin Gustafson Has Started Lisening To Westside Parents.....

.....Jan Cash, the mother of a fifth-grade boy, said she worries fifth-grade class sizes will create a larger burden for the teachers.

"Twenty-seven kids is an awfully large load for any person to handle, and it's just way too many different levels to teach at," she said. "It is going to be really difficult."

Rick Masi, whose daughter is in fifth grade, echoed those sentiments.

"The teacher is going to be stuck in a bad situation. It's just too many kids to control," ......

Full Story: Greenwich Time

COMMENT:

Every Greenwich Child Deserves To Be In A Classroom Where They Can Get Individual Attention.

This Is What Parents Want.

This Is What Teachers Want.

This Is What These Disadvantaged Children Need !!!!!

These Oversized Byram Classes Do Not Teacher's Pay Attention To All Of The Students.

If A Child In The Class Has A Problem In One Area, A Teacher Can't Stop And Help.

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