Class Size to Increase; 2 Kindergarten Classes Created at Juniper Hill

Framingham School Administration: "Accommodating between 760-800 kindergarten children for the third year in a row has required some creativity and flexibility, but we are pleased to report every kindergarten student has an assignment for September."

To deal with 800 kindergarten students in the fall, Framingham Public Schools plans to override the Framingham School Committee recommended class size policy for kindergarten students of 19-22 students and place 23 kindergarten students in each classroom for the Class of 2026. And even with the increase of one student per class, the school district doesn't have enough classroom space in its 8 elementary schools and has made the decision to house two kindergarten classes at the former Juniper Hill Elementary School, now B.L.O.C.K.S Preschool. Kindergarten students at the former Juniper Hill will follow the same schedule as McCarthy Elementary School students 8:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. The students, as first graders, then will be transferred to …

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Framingham Resident

1:04 pm on Tuesday, May 21, 2013

That's great to hear.... hopefully more people will speak out positively about Brophy to continue to make it a great place to send children without the negative stigma of being "stuck there"! And honestly, low elementary test scores mean NOTHING in the grand scheme of things! (This is definitely positive information as a person interested in moving into the Brophy school area with a 3 year old!)   more ›

115 Middle School Classes Have More than 25 Students

The Framingham Teachers Association, involved in tense negotiations with the administration, wants language written into a new contract specifically on limiting class size.

Framingham Teachers Association and the Framingham School Administration, while in the midst of tense contract negotiations, do agree on one thing - there are too many middle school classes above the Framingham School Committee guideline of no more than 25 students per class. According to a memo to the School Committee from Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott, there are a total of 115 middle school classes with more than 25 students. Of the 115 middle school classes, 54 of those classes are in core subjects such as math, science, social studies, language arts and world language. And 44 of those core classes are at Cameron Middle School, 4 at Fuller Middle and 6 at Walsh Middle. (See attached chart for more details.) There are roughly …

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Administration Foot-Dragging; Teachers 'Losing Faith'

Teachers Association: "We are also considering more drastic measures including a “work-to-rule” action. This means that many of us, who enthusiastically take part in extra-curricular activities in our community, will be sitting on the sidelines."

We, the 1,000 teachers and education professionals of the Framingham Teachers Association, recently began picketing outside of our schools. We have taken this step to call attention to our current contract struggle. We view these negotiations as an opportunity to work jointly to make improvements to our schools – including reducing class sizes – that will truly benefit our students. While we maintain hope that the superintendent and Framingham School Committee will join with us in this important endeavor, we are losing faith. While the administration wants the public to believe that class size reduction does not have an impact on student achievement, that premise is just plain false. The information that the administration has put on their…

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Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Class Size Affects Your Kids

Framingham Teachers Association President: "The number of students in a class directly impacts the time that a teacher can provide individual attention and appropriate differentiation of instruction."

In a recent survey of middle school teachers in the Framingham Public School system, during the first trimester there were 45 classrooms that violated the school committee policy on maximum class size. I have good reason to believe that these violations are continuing into the second trimester. This policy, stating that a core content and world language classroom should have a maximum of 25 students, can be found in the online policy Manual located at http://framingham.k12.ma.us/sc.cfm in Section I, File IIB. The number of students in a class directly impacts the time that a teacher can provide individual attention and appropriate differentiation of instruction. While this bothers the staff in these classrooms, there is nothing they can do…

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Class of 2024 Increases to 770 Students

Superintendent of Schools said 80% of the incoming kindergarten families had requested full-day kindergarten. Available kindergarten seats are now very limited.

In less than two weeks, the incoming kindergarten class has increased from 755 students to 770 students, Superintendent of Schools Steven Hiersche told the School Committee Wednesday night. This would be the largest class in the district. In comparison, the current first grade class was at 706 students, as of Oct 1, 2010. Most of the current middle and high school classes are in the 500s. Most of the elementary classes are in the 600 range. The bigger issue is that the Framingham School District is running out of classroom seats for the Class of 2024. The School Committee has a policy of 19 students in kindergarten, plus or minus 3 - 22 students. With 22 students per kindergarten class, the Supterintendent said there are "2 seats" left. "…

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