Do students at all of Mahwah’s elementary schools have the same learning opportunities? That was the underlying question asked Wednesday night by a group of about 150 parents from Lenape Meadows, who asked the Board of Education to hire more teachers at their school.

The parents argued that class sizes in two grades in particular – the rising first graders and third graders – are too big.

“We are concerned about the day-to-day learning experiences of our kids,” one parent at the school board meeting Wednesday night, Shana Brown, said. “A class of 25 or 26 kids is just too big.”

The concern amongst Lenape parents comes about a month after a group of parents from another district elementary school, George Washington, brought up the same issue. Last month, Superintendent Dr. Karen Lake announced the rising third graders at GW would be divided into three classes next year, not two. Parents had expressed concern that one of the current third grade teachers at the school would be moved to a different grade, leaving their kids in overcrowded classrooms.

Lenape parents asked not just for a rearranging of current staff, but the hiring of new faculty members at the school.

Lake said that adding teachers at Lenape is “definitely a possibility,” but that the board has to continue analyzing enrollment numbers and “assessing where our greatest needs are” before it decides which specific positions it will add to the district next year.

As part of this year’s school budget, the board allowed for nine new full-time hires in the 2012-2013 school year. Tentatively, the board is planning to hire one first grade teacher at Lenape, one English-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, two special education teachers, a math and science teacher at the high school, three reading teachers and one district director of curriculum.

While the number of new hires for next year will remain at nine, Lake said the specific positions may change. “We are constantly monitoring our enrollment numbers and meeting with building principals to see what we need the most. And, we do that through the summer months because enrollment numbers, especially in the younger grades, tend to change so much.” She said a final decision on which grades will get new teachers likely will not be made until this summer.

District Business Administrator Ed Deptula said that the board likes to make its final hiring decisions by “August 15, when letters go home telling kids what classes they are in.”

Lenape parent and HSO Vice President Denise Pikowski said parents were not satisfied with the response from the district’s administration. “The parents at GW were given a more immediate reassurance that their kids will have a better learning environment next year. I think we should get that too.”

Pikowski sent a note to HSO parents urging them to attend Wednesday’s Board meeting. “For the past three weeks George Washington parents have attended the meetings in force to make certain they maintain their existing three third grade classes for the current second grade class to move into next year. By the show of people in attendance, it was approved,” her letter said. “[We] deserve a smaller class size ratio as well.”

The board provided statistics that show that the average class size of a first grade class at Lenape this year is larger than those at GW and Betsy Ross, the district’s other K-3 elementary schools.

In the second grade this year, GW had the biggest average class sizes.

First Grade (2011-2012 school year)

Second Grade (2011-2012 school year)

However, Pikowski argued that once GW’s second graders move into three classes next year, the average class size will go to 17.3 students per class. “Lenape Meadows has 118 [rising third graders], and only five classes, a 23.6 student per class ratio,” she said in her letter. “We need to fight for a sixth class for this grade, otherwise the numbers will remain at an average of nearly 24 to a class.”

Other parents at the meeting said the board needs to address the “learning discrepancies” between the districts' three schools. “We understand that the class sizes at the three schools can’t be exactly the same, that’s not realistic,” Brown said. “But, when you have one school with 17 kids in a class and another with 25, that’s just too big of a difference. It’s not fair.”

Parents and district administrators brought up Thursday the differences in state test scores between students at Lenape and those at GW and BR. According to results released by the state earlier this year, nearly 37 percent of third grade students at Lenape were not proficient in Language Arts. Only 2.3 and 10.6 percent of students at BR and GW respectively scored at a “below proficient” level on last year’s state exams.

Some parents at the meeting said test scores at Lenape were one of their concerns, and that they believed reducing class sizes would help improve test scores.

Lake said the district has already taken steps to combat test scores that were “lower than what we wanted” at Lenape and two other district schools. The board has implemented tutoring programs, dual-teacher classrooms and Language Arts curriculum review. “Class sizes are not the only factor when it comes to test scores, but it is one of our concerns,” she said.

Lenape is by far the largest school of its kind in the district. It has about double the number of students that George Washington and Betsy Ross do. The smaller schools have over 200 students in each, while Lenape, which is physically much larger, has over 400 students.

Lake said class sizes at “every school in the district will continue to be monitored and we will make hiring decisions accordingly.” While she said she is “fully aware” that the two grades in question at Lenape Meadows are “places we need to watch,” she said every class in the district will be monitored to see “where our needs are greatest, and what positions we need to hire most.”