Enrollment Up in Springfield Public Schools

Class sizes are up in the Springfield Public School District as more kids attend school here and the district deals with budget cuts. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…

More kids are attending class at Springfield Public Schools this year. Official enrollment for the district is 24, 129 students for the 2010-2011 school year. That’s an increase of 169 students compared to numbers from the last school year.The increased enrollment comes at a time when there are fewer teachers due to budget cuts, which has increased class size district-wide by approximately .75 students. Ryan Van Bibber is a spokesperson for Springfield Public Schools…

"Anecdotely, we know that there's some high schools and some elementary schools out there where class size has increased because of that, and it's a concern for parents and the district as a whole."

The Springfield school district reduced its 2010-2011 budget by 5.1 million dollars—most of which came via a staffing reduction of 57 FTE or full time equivalent, which included 26 teachers. The district is watching to see what will happen in the next budget year when money could be even tighter…

"Right now, the state's projecting anywhere from a 600 million to a one billion-dollar budget shortfall, which could impact education very significantly."

In a news release today, Springfield Schools Superintendent Norm Ridder says that, combined with further increases in enrollment could have an even greater impact on class size in the district.He says they hope to receive input from the community as they plan for next year’s budget and that the district will explore every possible route to minimize the impact in classrooms.