On February 2nd, a public meeting was held by the Board of Education in order to discuss the superintendent’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013. Among the topics of concern were the opening of a new charter school and the elimination of media assistant positions, but the subject that drew the most controversy is the superintendent’s proposed increase of class size in order to create a surplus to provide a raise for FCPS teachers.

    There was a great deal of uproar regarding this change. Many media assistants spoke about the importance of their positions and the importance of maintaining small class sizes instead of giving teachers raises.

    According to the superintendent’s recommended budget, nearly eleven million dollars will be put towards a “Salary Resource Pool” for FCPS teachers and staff. In other words, this money will be allocated to provide teachers with raises, which they have not received in four years.

    One Governor Thomas Johnson High School social studies teacher was particularly vocal: “An increase in class size does not mean that only one more student is in our room. It can mean many more, depending on where cuts are made. While I am very concerned that this change will have a negative impact on the instruction of the students in my classroom, I am so much more concerned that I will be less able to find help them with their real problems.” He went on to say that he is overwhelmed with the number of students he is faced with already, and he does not have the time to provide them with the help they need –both academically and psychologically.

    But according to the superintendent’s proposed budget, an increase in elementary class sizes by one student would reduce the budget by two million dollars. An increase in middle school and high school class sizes would reduce the budget by an additional one million.

However, these budget reductions would eliminate 37 positions at the elementary level and 21 positions at the middle and high school level.

    The superintendent explains that this a necessary consequence, because in order to remain competitive in relation to other school districts in Maryland, FCPS must offer teachers and other staff a pay raise. “Where our teacher salary ranks in relation to other school districts is falling, and so a brand new teacher coming out to teach in Frederick County, his or her salary ranks 22^nd out of 24 in the state. So my fear is that the best and the brightest teachers will look elsewhere.”

     “We had 111 candidates from colleges that we had screened and gone after decline to interview with us,” said Alban. “That scared me.”

    But increasing class size has many difficult implications. Although “an increase of class size by one” does not sound like a significant change, this will result in both an elimination of 58 teachers countywide, and class sizes pushing 35-40 in classes that are in high demand.

    “There is a fear that when we make that change that we’re going to see overload in classes that are academically challenging for students. Many times those are the students that face the burden of class sizes of 38, 39, and 40,” said Alban.

    An example of Alban’s fear is an AP Literature class right here at Linganore, which had, at the start of the semester, 40 students.

    “Here at Linganore we have pretty good class sizes. We made a decision to run smaller classes like Journalism. If we got rid of one journalism class, we could have two AP lit classes, but classes like Journalism are nice to have all year,” said Mr. Kehne.

    Because of decreasing enrollment, LHS is faced with the reduction of five teaching positions already. The enrollment also impacts by reducing by one assistant principal and one guidance counselor.

    The budget, which goes into effect July of this year, will be further discussed at several board meetings leading up to its implementation.