ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – St. Johns County, one of the fastest-growing school districts in the state, is continuing its breakneck pace.
This school district known for its top schools added another 2,000 students this year. That’s a 4% growth compared to last year.
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Last week, the school board approved a resolution to allow the district to exceed the state limit for core subject class sizes, which is allowed by state law.
But, the district said that the resolution is not due to the growth it is seeing right now and set out to ease parents’ concerns about overcrowded classrooms.
After media reports last week, the St. Johns County Superintendent put out a video clarifying the class size resolution saying the school board has approved similar resolutions since 2011.
State law says the class maximums are 18 students in Pre-K through 3rd, 22 students in grades 4-8, and 25 students in Grades 9-12.
Starting next month, the school district will be able to add up to three new students to a class in Grades PK-3 and five new students to classes in Grades 4-12.
The school board approved it after saying “it is impractical, educationally unsound, or disruptive to student learning to continually move and relocate students within a grade level to maintain class size compliance.”
Superintendent Tim Forson said while there are individual classrooms that will exceed the state class size limit due to new students, he says on average the district has maintained well below what is outlined in the resolution.
“For example, last year in our fastest growing year, after utilizing the flexibility outlined in the resolution the average class size for grades K through three in February, was 16.3 Students below the cap of 18. In grades four through eight, the average was 18.8 below the cap of 22 students and in grades nine through 12, where the cap is 25 students in core classes, the average was 20.4 students,” Forson said.
The district has still had to go to great lengths to manage the staggering growth that’s led to overcrowding.
The district has rearranged attendance zones, added a record number of portable classrooms and approved plans to build four new schools over the next five years.
