Trending
Eighteen Lee County schools, out of an initial 23, still exceed state maximums for student class size.
"Lee County is still growing, just busting at the seams," School District of Lee County Budget Director Kelly Letcher said.
Those from the initial list that are compliant as of Jan. 31 are Orange River Elementary School, Gulf Middle School, Spring Creek Elementary, Gateway Elementary School and Diplomat Elementary School.
Schools out of compliance are The Alva School; Edison Park Creative and Expressive Arts; Franklin Park Elementary; Lehigh Elementary School; Orangewood Elementary School; Lexington Middle School; Pinewoods Elementary School; Patriot Elementary School; Treeline Elementary School; Tanglewood Elementary School; North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts; Pelican Elementary School; Gulf Elementary School; Sunshine Elementary School; Hector A. Cafferata Jr. Elementary School; Three Oaks Elementary School; Hancock Creek Elementary School and Veterans Park Academy for the Arts.
Letcher said the district grew by 1,600 students from October 2020 to October 2021.
"We just keep putting students in their classrooms," she said. "They (teachers) are taking on bigger classes in order to make sure those students have a qualified teacher in there. That does affect our class size."
In addition, the district has lost more than 900 instructional staff between July 2020 and January of this school year.
To be in compliance with state mandates, elementary classes should have no more than 18 students, middle school no more than 22 and high school no more than 25 students in a class.
"We are still trying to meet it. We are doing our best," Letcher said.
The school board approved a 2021-2022 Class Size Reduction Compliance Plan, which is a template used to provide a brief explanation of the school’s plan to meet class size requirements for the FTE student survey in October, at its Tuesday night meeting.
"Lee County will continue to work to assure that we have qualified teachers in our classrooms. We will continue offering our teachers the option to work through their planning periods to create more class sections for students. We are also continuing initiatives for recruiting new teachers, such as ‘becoming a teacher’ workshops, advertising via social media and paid ads, early release of college interns, etc.," the 2021-2022 Class Size Reduction Compliance Plan states.
If the schools do not meet compliance, Letcher said the district will lose money "per student in the class size reduction dollars," which has yet to be calculated by the state.
She said the district filed an appeal about a month ago for the state for the schools that are out of compliance. The appeal explained the district’s growth, difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers, as well as some of the ways they are trying to keep class size down.