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Schools

LaSusa: 'No Move to Add a Teacher' at S. Boulevard

Assistant superintendent says first-grade situation remains unchanged, but is closely monitored.

With parents voicing their concerns at the past two Board of Education meetings, the request for an additional first grade teacher at Southern Boulevard School for the 2011-12 academic year has become a big topic of conversation.

Southern Boulevard School currently has 113 students enrolled for the fall, bringing the number of students per classroom to 22 or 23.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa confirmed Thursday the number of enrolled students, and said the school board will continue to keep an eye on the situation.

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“The numbers at Southern Boulevard remain unchanged and, therefore, there has been no move to add a teacher to the first grade,” LaSusa wrote in an email. “We continue to monitor the situation and will increase our staffing should the numbers grow before the school year begins.”

At the July 18 meeting, Heather Turnbull submitted a petition with 71 signatures collected from an online petition favoring another teacher at Chatham Township's elementary school. Since then, six more people have signed the petition, bringing the total to 77 as of Sunday night.

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Most of the signatures are from New Jersey (the towns are not displayed) but other signatures include Jennifer Curtis, of Mississippi, Sally Aliano, from California, Tami Mendoza, of California, and Dena Harris, of Georgia. International signers include Ijaz Khan, of Saudi Arabia, Patrick Whyte, of the United Kingdom, and Teodora Radovic, of Serbia and Montenegro.

The teaching position was not included in the approved 2011-12 school budget, so the board "would have to find the money from another account or another source," according to Board Member Rich Connors.

Chatham Patch readers have also voiced their opinions in the comments section on the current situation at Southern Boulevard School.

questioned whether there truly was a magic number for school enrollment. "My elementary class had 52 students. We all learned to read, write, and calculate. ... There is no magic in numbers when it comes to class size and people tend to over state the educational advantage of small numbers."

User wrote that a more thoughtful solution might be needed. "It is timely that we learn to fix problems without throwing money at them," the person wrote.

wrote: "[C]lass size isn't any larger now at SBS than it has been in the past. With that in mind, perhaps you should take a look at the profile for Chatham High school on the web site for a reality check. Most of these kids went to Chatham elementary schools with the kind of class sizes you see now. ... We don't need to pay for class sizes of 20 students per room. If your kids can't make it in this school system—its [sic] not class size that is the problem. Give us a break on property taxes with that extra money Christie sent us instead of reflexively looking for new reasons to spend it. Sheesh."

User compared her experience in public education to her two middle school-aged children: "In comparing their elementary years to those of my own childhood I do not see any measurable advantage to the smaller class sizes ... Rather I think a student's success depends primarily upon their own personal drive and intellectual capacity in combination with the support they get from their family."

Former Board of Education member wrote, "The Chatham School District target class size for first grade is 21. This has been set by prior Administrations and Boards of Education. Ms. Turnbull is simply asking that the Board and Administration keep to those targets."

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