2026-27 - Class Size Planning and Community Engagement 2026-27 - Class Size Planning and Community Engagement Show Transcript good evening biswa Families my name is enali bum I am the acting principal of the Bronx Studio school for writers and artists for those of you that don't know me um thank you for joining this presentation today what we're going to talk about the class size implementation um and what it means for the 2026 2027 school year so we're going to talk about what it means to talk about the class size law first of all so we're going to understand that we want to review our schools current position and compliance we're going to discuss planning and potential Solutions and then we're going to engage in feedback and partnership and then how you guys can um send us feedback so first of all understanding the class size law under revised New York state law schools are required to increase the percentage of classes that meet class size limits over time contributing to New York City Public Schools overall compliance with the law so as you can see we're now in the 2026 2027 school year and we should be at 70% compliance so 70% of classes City wide should be meeting the class size law so what is the class size law what does it mean so right now our school is a 6212 school so if you look at the chart here it says uh grades 4 through 8 so for our grade 6 through 8 and building there should be no more than 23 students in the classroom for grades 9 through 12 25 is the cap and then for our PE and performing arts classes it's 40 however um given the fact that we have to be at 70% compliance some classes May exceed those limits um for specific purposes until we get to 100% but we'll talk about that also as we get to go so by year 2030 100% of classes should be um in compliance Citywide so how schools across New York are planning for smaller class sizes they're looking for Staffing Solutions scheduling and program planning space Solutions and then long-term planning um over time which is working with the district and City Partners to assess future space needs so right now at the Bronx Studio school for writers and artists we have 494 students we have 63 teachers out of our 494 students 131 of those students are students with disabilities that makes up about 27% of our student body and then we have 55 students is that a multilingual Learners and that makes up about 11.1% you can see that if you look at grade distribution uh our sixth grade has 46 students so they have the least amount and then our grade 7 has the most students in the building um we get is a eighth grade we got 86 with ninth grade at 84 10th grade at 77 11th grade at 62 and then 12th grade at 52 students so under the school our school's position we are at 92% compliance right now for our schools so with the city the minimum is 70% we're at 92% so we're doing the work of trying to make sure that we stay in compliance and that make sure that students are getting the learning um that they need in the attention that they need in the classroom so what we've done so far is that we fully programmed um our instructional space so that means the the majority of our classrooms in the building are being used every period there may be 1 classroom that's not being used so but the most part all those classrooms are being used we have rebalanced classes so when we came into the school year they may have been overages depending on our rosters and students coming in a little later and so what we did is we went through and we rebalance those classes based on student needs we maximize our teacher programming so there's very few teachers in the school that does not have a full program and if they don't have a full program then they are doing reading intervention or something else to support the students cross the board and then make sure that the ratios are in place and then we are always looking to hire additional staff if need be um and talk about that a little bit later in the program some of the challenges that we are constantly having to work through is space limitations and for those of you that know we have a very beautiful building um however it is not as big as it seems so that always creates a little a bit of problems when we talk about bringing in more teachers to have more students in additional classes we can only have so many classes going on at once and so what other schools may have you know additional rooms that are free and they can open up another section we don't have the capabilities to do that um and the Staffing shortages is also always an issue right we have a few vacancies right now that we're working through and making but we also have teachers in the room that are that are competent and capable and giving them a high quality instruction so if you guys are watching the news and you look anywhere in the world right now is a teacher shortage everywhere and so it's important that we all understand that we're doing the best that we can um but we are also not sure changing the students in the classroom so there's possible ways to to to make smaller classes and and as we continue to go and want to be 100% compliance eventually we're going to continuously be looking to hire additional teachers we're going to continuously adjust schedules we're going to continue to rebalance the classes as needed and then we're also going to continue to work with the district and collaborate when necessary um would you well will not change though however Is our commitment to Student Learning our access to academic programs and ongoing communication with families and we understand that you guys have concerns and you you want to be in the know and we want you to be in the know so please make sure that if whatever concerns you have you feel free to reach out because you are partners with us and we want you to continue to be partners with us so for the 2026 2027 school year New York City Public Schools along with the United Federation of teachers and the Council of school administrators will continue collaborating on the implementation of the class size law including the review of exemptions as provided under state law schools do not apply for an exemption exemptions are provided on a yearly basis cases so for the 2026 2027 school year they are currently 3 exemptions outlined in the class size plan subject to the agreement and the first 1 is the over-enrolled students in the school so if the school has too many students uh 2 is space so they don't have enough space and then 3 is licensed area shortages and exemption differentials information will be forthcoming information on the exempt schools and classes will be posted um on the schools or the New York City's info Hub so you guys can go there to get more information and so like I said we're always looking for feedback from our families because we service you we service your children we want to make sure this is the best um education for them and so in order to do that we got to collaborate right so we want you we we committed to keeping families informed sharing updates is plans developed listening to feedback and questions and then working together to support students success so for the fee for feedback so if you guys want to give me feedback I welcome that feedback please send me feedback you can email me at beat him at school was nyc.gov um please share questions perspectives or concerns your input helps strengthen our planning and we appreciate your engagement and partnership and once again if you guys have any questions or concerns feel free to reach out to me at any point we are here for you and we want you to have a wonderful evening
