Now that some dust has settled for this year on financing Act 127, I wonder if our School Board should address the difficult question of increasing class size (students per section) at Marion Cross School. Under H.850, which is now law, school boards can delay the vote on their budgets until April 15 in order to rework them.
If I am correctly reading the materials from the Norwich Budget Presentation on December 6, 2023, MCS could go from three sections to two sections in each of grades K through 3, while maintaining class size within the Board’s existing policy. By eliminating a section, the projected class size for kindergarten would increase from 12 students to 18 students per section, grade 1 from 15 to 22/23, grade 2 from 13 to 19/20, and grade 3 from 14/15 students to 22 per section.
Apparently, the School Board considered this option in November. However, at that time, any increase in the homestead tax rate was capped at 5%. But H. 850 repealed that cap. The School Board recently estimated that under H. 850, the homestead property tax rate for Norwich would increase by 18%, this year, with larger increases to come.
I don’t know the impact of eliminating staff for four sections will have on the tax rate, education quality, or staff morale. However, I hope the School Board discusses the matters at its special meeting on February 27 to keep the public informed.
End notes
My information comes from the bottom of page 5 of Norwich School District, 2024-25 Proposed Budget, Draft slide deck, available on BoardDocs and here.
I believe this started in 1982/83 when my daughter was in K at MCS. There were 45 students that year in 2 sections. Only 30 students moved on to Grade 1 in 2 sections of 15 each. The remaining 15 students were “held back” in a separate section for what was termed “a year of transition”. And so, this smaller class size has been around for over 40 years.