Eleven classrooms at four Stillwater Area Public elementary schools will have multi-grade sections this year as part of a cost-cutting measure at the district.
The classrooms, which combine students from two grade levels with one teacher, will be introduced at Brookview, Lake Elmo, Lily Lake and Rutherford elementary schools.
The last time the district had to use multi-grade classrooms for budgetary reasons was in 2015-16, said Carissa Keister, the district’s chief of staff and director of communications.
District officials say it is not cost-effective to add another teacher when one class size gets too large while other classrooms are below the district’s normal range. Instead, the extra students from one grade can be joined with another grade.
“It’s really just trying to balance those class sizes, and the most efficient way to do that is to then blend that smaller class with another smaller class,” Keister said.
Most of the multi-grade classrooms are at the third- and fourth-grade level or fourth- and fifth-grade level, Keister said. The district made a point not to combine second-graders with other grade levels because that’s when students are learning how to read “versus third grade, where you have a little bit higher level,” she said.
Some benefits
There are some benefits to multi-grade classrooms, including providing opportunities for peer mentoring and leadership, and a strong sense of community and collaboration, according to district officials.
“Most importantly, this approach helps us balance class sizes across our schools, ensuring that all students continue to receive the attention and support they need,” officials said.
Teachers selected to lead the multi-grade classrooms received additional time over the summer to prepare, Keister said. Families were notified of class placements last week, she said.
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“Our teachers are already very experienced at differentiation and being able to meet kids where they are, so it’s something that’s already happening in classrooms,” Keister said. “We have kids in classrooms who are vastly different in their abilities, so teachers are constantly doing that.”
Principals worked with staff to identify which students “were going to really benefit from this kind of a classroom,” Keister said. “It wasn’t random. It was very strategic in how they built those, and also in selecting teachers to teach them. A lot of these teachers have taught these grade levels before. They’ve maybe even taught multi-grade (classes) before. There was a lot of intentionality in how we pulled this together.”
The district is facing a $5 million budget shortfall this school year, which is about 3 percent of its operating budget.
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