multigrade classroom debate

I like the "blog" you started to help collect
opinions on the matter - it is nice to get offerings
from the people we don't usually hear from. This is a
VERY important topic and we need to engage as many LE
parents as possible.

If I could add a few things :

- I really like the mixed grades and think it is
important that we hang on to BOTH split classes.
- we need to also consider that there are board
guidelines of a 23 student max per class (I think
that's what it was, but correct me if I am
wrong)...class size is also an important issue which
generated a movement led by Ananda at LE in September
- I have this feeling that Lori made her decision
based on a belief that class size is the main concern
of parents...
- Whatever is decided has to be adhered to at least
for a few years to give us the desired continuity; at
the meeting I may have appeared to oppose the 3 grade
splits which I definitely don't, however, a point was
brought up that due to the confguration changees every
year there was a student who was in the oldest grade
2/3 years. I beleive 2 or 3 grade classes work best if
the student gets a year at each level. The issue
occurs when that objective fails to be met ie. a child
is in grade 2 of a 1-2 split, then grade 3 of a 1-2-3
split then grade 4 of a 3-4 split...

Dominic Fontaine