[BHS Etree] ADMIN: Average Class Size at BHS 2017-18

[BHS Etree]

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Dear BHS families,

In the spring of every year, we put together a class master schedule for Berkeley High for the coming school year to provide for the anticipated number of students, necessary courses, and balance of teacher work loads. As you might imagine, it is a complex calculation with many moving parts, and usually we get it right, but sometimes we run into complications, as we did this year. 

There were a number of issues that affected our calculations this year, including lower enrollment at Berkeley Technology Academy (which draws from the BHS population), and the transition to a new student data system which slowed the admissions process district-wide over the summer, leaving about 60 students added to classes much later in the summer, when additional hiring and scheduling becomes quite difficult. 

With some classes approaching larger than usual sizes in the first weeks of school, our choices were either to allow class schedules to stabilize, or try to hire teachers at the last minute to open up new sections of certain classes, resulting in significant student schedule upheaval to re-balance classes. In the recent past we have found that even when we are able to secure teachers for additional classes in the first few weeks of school, the disruption to student schedules is very upsetting to students and families. After much deliberation, we opted to permit some classes to be somewhat larger than past years, 

The teacher contract specifies that the District shall fund class size averages at 28:1 for Berkeley High. In our efforts to appropriately balance class size each year, we always have some classes that are much smaller than 28 students, and some that are larger. We try to balance class sizes as much as possible towards having smaller classes where there are greater student needs, such as for lower level humanities, math and science classes, and allow larger class sizes in the more advanced and AP sections and some electives. This year we did end up with some larger introductory classes, but for the most part the larger classes are concentrated in the more advanced sections.

As you may know, the BSEP tax measure provides the funding that allows BUSD class size averages to be much lower than many school districts. The measure does not specify a maximum class size per teacher, but provides direction as to class size average goals for each grade level or program. For Berkeley High, the BSEP goal is a school-wide average of 28:1 for academic classes, and that goal was exceeded this year, at a 28.45 average. The 2017-18 class size report will be brought to the BSEP Planning and Oversight Committee at its next meeting for further discussion.

We regret that the average class size exceeded the target class size average specified by our contract with our teachers, and we are committed to ensuring that this does not happen again. We are confident that our students will continue to be served well by the excellent teaching staff at Berkeley High. 

Pasquale Scuderi, Associate Superintendent for Educational Services
Erin Schweng, Principal 

-- 
Principal, Berkeley High School
Berkeley Unified School District
(510) 644-4803
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Marguerite Fa-Kaji, Jenny Fosket and Dylan Kaufman are the parent-volunteer facilitators of the Etree; please direct any questions about the Etree to them at bhs-owner at lmi.net.

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