Rockville Centre Class Balancing suspended

We always thought it was a helpful and useful tool to manage our resources. But with so many questions, we thought it better to suspend it for a year.”

Liz Dion, Board of Education president

After two contentious meetings with Riverside parents in as many weeks, the Board of Education has moved to suspend its Class Balancing policy for the rest of the school year.

Riverside parents once again crowded the Board of Education meeting on June 1 to speak out against what they said was the district’s inappropriate use of the policy. They said that families at AvalonBay with incoming kindergartners were “poached” from Riverside and directed to Watson school, thereby reducing the number of incoming students at Riverside and forcing it to merge two kindergarten classes into one large one.

Under the Class Balancing policy, the district sends letters in June to parents whose children will be enrolled in classes of 25 or more the following fall. If possible, it gives them the option to move the students to a different building, where they will be in a class of 19 or fewer. But Riverside parents contend that the district contacted the parents at Avalon early, in late April, and told them about switching schools. No students have been moved yet, but two families accepted the offer and are preparing to move their three children to Watson.

Amid the loud protestations of Riverside parents this year — and after similar complaints from parents at other schools in years past — the Board of Education decided after last week’s meeting to suspend the policy and then form a committee to examine it next year.

“We needed a chance to examine the policy,” said Board of Education President Liz Dion. “We needed a chance to look at the questions raised by the Riverside parents and others. We always thought [the policy] was a helpful and useful tool to manage our resources. But with so many questions, we thought it better to suspend it for a year.”

This means that no parents will receive letters giving them the option of Class Balancing this year, even though there were seven groups across the district that were eligible. It does not mean, however, that the board will divide every large class.

“We are not automatically splitting at 26,” Dion said. “We’re still maintaining that we will not finalize that until our walk-through [in August].”

Historically, the board has waited until the August meeting to make its final decision about class sizes, in order to accommodate people moving in and out of the district. “I’d love to make the decision in July,” said Dion. “It’s easier for everybody. But sometimes the numbers don’t warrant it.”

There are many classes across the district that are sitting at 25 or 26 students right now, she added.

The decision to suspend the policy was made by the board in an executive session after more raucous exchanges with parents from Riverside. Some of them yelled at the trustees and threatened to try to vote them out in the next election because of the policy.

“You’re asking us to believe this is the best we can do,” said Michael Mulhall, a Riverside parent. “And we don’t believe it.”

At the beginning of the meeting, district Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said that students perform well even in large classes, but many parents said they simply did not believe him. “This policy should be done away with. It doesn’t balance the classes,” said Katie Conlon, who has opposed the Class Balancing policy since it was first proposed. “It did the opposite. It’s keeping Riverside in a big class.”