The redistricting plan comes after more than 100 Wayne school positions were slashed this year.
WAYNE, NJ — The Wayne Board of Education discussed a potential redistricting plan to accommodate increasing class sizes.
During its most recent meeting, a concerned citizen approached the board, citing issues regarding the recent 100+ Wayne school positions slashed, along with an influx of residents, and therefore, students.
“Classroom sizes may rise to approximately 30 students per class, an educational environment that is far from ideal,” she told the board. “Families deserve clear, accurate, and proactive communication… With this recent reduction of 111 teaching positions, and new housing development underway, the issue of overcrowded classrooms will only worsen.”
The citizen said added not only will this weaken student performance, but also upend the district’s reputation as a “high-performing school system.”
Responding was Superintendent Dr. Mark Toback, who will be retiring at the end of July. Toback said that elementary school class sizes are reevaluated often, and agreed that increasing class sizes may become an issue in the near future.
“The classes that you’re talking about are all within the district guidelines, which I admit, are not ideal when you’re talking about the education of elementary school students… But this is the world we have,” he said. “Those classes might continue to grow, and it’s something the board is very concerned about.”
One solution Toback offered was redistricting Wayne schools, adding that plans are already in place to make that happen.
School redistricting is essentially the redrawing of neighborhood school boundaries in an effort to equally distribute students across a district.
“One way to deal with these issues is redistricting, so the board is in fact involved in a plan… They’ve hired consultants, they’ve gathered information, they’ve shared that information,” Toback said. “So there is a redistricting plan that is in development, and that will also resolve, hopefully, some of these class size issues.”
Toback added that another way to curb the student influx would be another school building, something he thinks the district “desperately needs.”
Wayne Township Public School District contains 15 schools, ten of which are elementary schools. The district serves 7,746 students, according to U.S. News and World Report.
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