A few weeks ago there was a public notice in the PTO mailbox at school put there by the principal. It basically said that the board of ed will be considering a waiver at the next boe meeting that would allow the student-instructor ratio to exceed the state requirements for grades K-3 in 3 elementary schools in the district. Attached to the notice was a post-it from the principal that said 'As the PTO Exec group I have to let you know we are over the state requirement for grades k-3--a meeting will be held. 2 kids-1 kid in grade 2, 1 kid in grade 2.' So basically there are 2 second grade classes that are over the requirement of 22 students per instructor by 1 student.

I had no idea why it was important that the PTO be informed of this so I asked one of the teachers that is also on the board. Apparently this will be the 3rd year for a waiver for our school for the same students. So this problem isn't going to go away. The teacher I talked to feels like as little attention as possible is given to this notice because the administration doesn't want to have to deal with everything that would be involved were the waiver not to be passed.

Even after talking to her I didn't understand what that had to do with the PTO. Does the PTO get notified because we represent the parents and therefore may want to dispute the waiver? If that is the case then I think I am not doing my job very well because I haven't a clue how the parents feel about this issue or even if they have an opinion.

So basically I guess I am asking if anyone else has encountered similar scenarios and what if anything have they done about it?

Thank you for your input!

There's certainly no national regs that would give your PTO that kind of status. Perhaps it's a state or community thing, but I doubt it.

My bet is that there may be a state reg requiring that notice be given to parents when X, Y or Z happens. And your principal (perhaps even at direction of school office) is trying to "get away" with satisfying the requirement in a backhanded, as-quiet-as-possible fashion. If someone came asking down the road, he or she could say: "I did give parent notification -- I made a formal notiuce to our school's PTO."

Of course, that's just cynical me thinking out loud with very little detail available, so I definitely could be completely off.

Tim

That would be my guess as well - the school probably has either has a requirement for a certain amount of public notice (community, parents, school stakeholders) or else they think it is a good idea.

Best case, the PTO is only one avenue by which they are communicating. Worse case - as Tim suggested, they may be trying to make that the only notification.

What state are you in?

We are in Delaware.

I tend to think along the same lines, that it is their way of being able to say they informed the parents via the PTO. If that is the case, am I being remiss in not doing anything? Should I be more proactive?

It sounds to me as though the Principal of the school is not in favor (why would he be?) of these classes quantity being waived year after year. If the proper rules were followed his school would be provided an extra teacher for those grades and as such would be provided more funds.

What he is likely hoping, without actually saying so, is that the PTO President will pass along the info to other informed, active parents so that they will hopefully unite and attend the meeting to discuss the issue. Squeeky wheel gets the grease, so to say. The Principal himself is likely not going to push the issue with his boss, so he would want the parents to "do the dirty work". Again, he is not going to say "You guys should go to the meeting and declare your opposition to the waiver", but by informing you he is probably hoping that that is exactly what you will do.

And maybe you guys should...

PresidentJim

The reason class limits are set is to provide a better quality of education by having an optimum(ideally anyway) teacher to pupil ratio. Too large of a class size can reduce the amount of time a teacher has to spend with each student and to assist struggling students.

Typically that 1 additional student wouldn't cause that much of a problem, but it depends on the student. You state that the district has had to pass this waiver for 3 years now, and obviously by the scheduling of a meeting they intend to do it again. If they intend to do this year after year, what is the point of setting limits in the first place? Maybe it's time they look at either increasing the limits or providing another class instead of just putting on this band-aid.

I like the idea of smaller class size limits(in case you couldn't tell). I guess if I were you I'd throw out the info at the next PTO meeting and see what parents think. Maybe a school board member or your principal would be willing to be present to answer questions and take comments. I think it's great that your principal let you know about the situation. It should be a parent concern because it affects all of the children.