Burlington May Have To Shift First-Grade Class Due To Enrollment

BURLINGTON, MA — Things are getting back to somewhat normal in school after the pandemic. But pre-pandemic obstacles still remain.

Superintendent Eric Conti told the School Committee Tuesday night the district may have to move a first-grade teacher from Pine Glen to Fox Hill in order to bring down the grade's average class size at the latter.

Conti said the average class size is 17 or 18 for the 96 elementary classrooms in Burlington Public Schools (that's about 1,680 elementary students.) But at Fox Hill, the average class size is 21 across the four first-grade classrooms.

"In many places that would be fine, but again, this committee doesn't agree with that," Conti said.

The imperfect solution might be to move one of the first-grade teachers from Pine Glen to Fox Hill for a yer, resulting in five Fox Hill first-grade classes and two Pine Glen ones. Pine Glen's average first-grade class size would increase from 12 to 18.

It's imperfect because it means displacing someone in a Fox Hill classroom, perhaps a specialist.

"I know that's not acceptable but I think we're having to make some difficult choices," Conti said.

The conundrum underscores the need for more classroom space.

"Obviously you can see our class sizes are starting to creep up," Conti said. "We certainly need the new elementary school to be online as soon as possible."

Conti also said planning for the upcoming school year is way different than last summer's planning.

"As of today we're expecting a full return," he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended unvaccinated children 2 and older wear masks in school, but Conti said officials are waiting on guidance from the state's Department of Public Health.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Burlington Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.