Class sizes are smaller in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, but there are still some crowded classrooms.
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School Board reviewed their class sizes for this year, and after being one of the highest in the province last year, it has dropped by more than two students per classroom in 2017-2018.
After there being 68 classes with more than 30 students last year, and a high of 89 in 2014-2015, there are only 15 classes in that category.
School board Chair Mike Murray said there are 97 more teachers in the district this year. Their hiring was made necessary after the BCTF won its long court battle with the provincial government over whether the teachers union had the right to bargain class size as a working condition.
“The restoration of the 2002 collective agreement has resulted in a very positive change to class sizes in our school district for 2017-2018…” said the report from district superintendent Sylvia Russell.
The report also describes mentions how bad the situation got in this district.
“Operating budget shortfalls and subsequent reductions in order to balance the school district operational budgets in 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 resulted in average class sizes which were among the largest in the province.
“As a result of several years of budget shortfalls and reductions, our secondary class size was the second largest provincially last year. Class sizes at intermediate in 2016-17 were also high – 14th highest in the province.”
Compared with last year, class sizes dropped from 19.9 to 18.6 at kindergarten, from 22 to 20.3 students in Grades 1-3, from 26.9 to 24.3 in Grades 4-7 and from 25.9 to 23.1 in Grades 8-12.
Murray said it is easy to see the lowered stress in the school system.
“When I’m out in schools, I hear people talking about the difference that has made,” said Murray.
He said last year he was at a high school English class where there were 32 students, and one was sitting on a window ledge rather than in a desk. He said getting that number down to 24 students makes a huge difference.
“It’s a better experience for everyone – you (the teacher) can put more time into each of the students.”