The size of classes have stayed relatively the same or dropped through all grade levels from the previous year, according to a recent report by the North Vancouver school district.
Class sizes for elementary school grades, including kindergarten and grades one through three, increased by only one child from the previous year, while intermediate grades from four to seven had no increase. The size of secondary school classes actually decreased from more than 25 in 2012/13, to fewer than 25 in 2013/14.
"The board was really pleased to see the changes that we were able to achieve," said John Lewis, district superintendent of schools. "I think the careful management of the budget on a three-year plan is paying dividends - that the board's able to plan more effectively for the future and we're seeing that in managing our class sizes."
Lewis, who presented the report at the Oct. 22 board meeting, said one of the highlights of the report is the reduction in the number of classes that exceed 30 students at the secondary school level.
"There is a total of just under 2,000 classes and this current year only 61 of those classes are 31 or greater," said Lewis. "When you go back one year it was 104 classes, if you go back two years it was 107 classes, so this is a significant improvement over the last three years."
Lewis said as a result there has been a shifting of staff between the school levels.
"We allocated more staff toward secondary than we had previously, so a little bit of a decrease to primary, increase of secondary," he said. "We also have had a more thorough process at the school level when the school is building its timetabling and scheduling students, there's more of a careful review of the classes."
Lewis said one example would be one class with 27 students and two classes with 31. All three classes could be shifted to become balanced classes of 28 or 29 rather than exceeding 31.
"The board also invested in the 'add-back' budget.. . of $1 million with the focus being increasing staffing at the secondary level," said Lewis. "We often use the report just to identify areas that require further attention and in the prior year we had identified a little more staffing to go to the secondary level."
Of the current classes exceeding 31, only 25 would be eligible for compensation towards teachers. The other majority is in the band, drama or other performing arts, making them ineligible for compensation.
"You want your entire band, so it's 45 or 50 students so that's exceeding 30," he said. "But what the band instructors will do is what is termed sectionals, so you'll have your full band of 50 but then it will break it apart into different sections," including percussion and brass.
Lewis said an increased number of classes have had no effect on space availability within the schools.
"We still have a small decline in enrolment and that's actually mostly at secondary schools right now," said Lewis. "That's where we're able to manage the classes through the spaces that we have available within the building. So it hasn't had an impact in that way."
