METHUEN — School Committee members are concerned that four homeroom classes in the city's schools have reached 30 students, while dozens of others have 27 or 28 students.
"Maybe we have to get a learning aide in there — in some of these classes with 30s," School Committee member Robert Vogler said at last night's meeting.
Large classes have been a problem this academic year, and Superintendent Jeanne Whitten provided School Committee members with updated figures last night. As of Nov. 17, three eighth-grade homeroom classes at Comprehensive Grammar School have 30 students, and one fourth-grade homeroom class at Tenney Grammar School has 30 students. Twenty-four homerooms in the grammar schools have 27 students each, while 17 grammar school homerooms have 28 students each and one has 29, according to the information provided by Whitten.
The information did not provide a breakdown for classes at Methuen High School.
The teachers union contract says "every reasonable effort will be made" by the School Committee to maintain class sizes of about 25 students for secondary and regular elementary classes.
Whitten said she would provide the committee with a breakdown of class sizes in academic subjects at the committee's meeting in January. School Committee member Evan Chaisson asked Whitten to let School Committee members know how school officials verify that new students live in Methuen, and Whitten said she'll provide that information as well.
School labor contracts allow employees who live outside Methuen to enroll their own children in the Methuen schools if there's space, provided the student doesn't require expensive special services, Whitten said. But employees who take advantage of that offer have been put on notice that officials are monitoring large class sizes. If classes become too crowded, then the parents may have to move their children to another school in the district, or completely withdraw the student from Methuen. MaryEllen Kelleher, the director of pupil services for the school district, said no students have been removed yet.
