MARSHALL — Facing overcrowding classrooms and optimistic that a bond referendum will pass in the near future, the Marshall Public School Board Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a 20:1 student-teacher ratio for K-2.

Ongoing growing enrollment trends recently sparked discussions regarding classroom size at Marshall Public Schools.

Board members shared their frustrations and concerns during the school board meeting on Tuesday as an action item hung in the balance.

“Our primary grades are critical,” board member Bill Swope said. “And 22:1 is being proposed, but I’d like to see it at 20.”

Board member Dion Caron said he agreed with Swope, especially because of the rising number of English Language (EL) and special education students in the district.

“I’d like to see the guideline be at 20:1 student-teacher ratio for K-2 students, too,” Caron said.

Class-size targets have been in place for many years at MPS. Superintendent Scott Monson said there have been ongoing discussions the past year or so.

“The targets have been in place a long time, so we talked whether or not we should revisit them,” Monson said. “Are those still what is educationally best for students? Each building administrator added input and then (business director) Bruce (Lamprecht) tweaked some of the verbiage and made a few small changes with the numbers based on the input.”

According to the district’s class-size guidelines, staffing allocations are based on anticipated student needs, overall grade-level enrollments, staff and class size targets as identified and available classroom space. Classroom space has been an ongoing challenge in the district, especially at Park Side Elementary, where K-2 students and some of the preschool students are located, and also at West Side, where third- and fourth-graders are at.

“We have no room at West Side and we’ve exhausted our possibilities for creating additional classrooms at Park Side,” Monson said. “Portable classrooms would be an option, but I don’t think anyone wants to keep putting a bunch of portables up next to the school. It’s not the best for kids and there are a lot of costs associated with those, too.”

Since maintaining relatively low and manageable class sizes and student-to-staff ratios are priorities for the district — as well as the community in which it serves — it becomes a major challenge when there is no more space in which to expand.

“Where do we put them?” board member Bill Mulso asked. “If we can’t add another section because we don’t have space, then do we add more support in the classroom? By doing that, it puts more work on the teachers.”

Swope agreed, noting that paraprofessionals end up being part of the teacher’s lesson plan since the teachers basically direct the paras to work with certain students on various skills — skills that are determined by the teacher in connection with the state standards.

“It would still be extra prep for our kindergarten through second-grade teachers,” Swope said.

And as EL and special education services increase, it also becomes more of a challenge to meet the needs of those students.

“I know space is an issue — we obviously need space — but I’m heavily concerned about K-2,” Swope said. “From what we learned from (EL coordinator) Jim (Gagner) at the work session meeting is that it takes 5-7 years for proficiency to take place. And we already know that K-2 years are critical based on data.”

Swope said he knows he is preaching to the choir, but that he’s not comfortable with the classroom sizes being stretched — even if it’s because of limited space.

“(Kindergarten teacher) Erica (Hess) has 23 kids in her class and 45 percent of them have special needs,” he said. “Research says the primary grades should have a ratio of 15:1, but I know we can’t do that.”

Monson said that 18:1 at the primary level would be “ideal” but that it isn’t possible right now.

“We realize our space limitations in terms of how many classrooms we can have, but we also feel like we know what’s best for students in the form of education,” he said. “Hopefully someday we can more closely align those numbers by creating classroom space. But the only way to do that would be through a referendum.”

Despite communicating the needs in the district, the past two school referendums have failed.

“We’re trying to balance out what we need to do for kids and also being fiscally responsible,” Monson said. “So the school board and the facilities committee have been talking about ‘what’s next’ in terms of facilities.”

With increasing enrollment pushing the physical limits, the district feels it has no choice but to bring forth another referendum. No set time frame has been established, though.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to really make sure we do as good of a job as possible of informing and educating the public about the needs,” Monson said.

While the need for space is definitely a priority, Monson said there are other needs in the district as well.

“There are still security concerns in our buildings that we want to fix,” he said. “And we haven’t even touched on the early childhood space, with our preschools in two locations and trying to accommodate the requests we have for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds.”

On Tuesday, board members approved a referendum communication plan proposal with The Write Advantage.

“They are a communications firm that specializes in developing a communication plan leading up to a referendum,” Monson said. “Whether that is in August of this year or two years from now, they’re going to help us just make sure we’re focused on the best ways to get our message out to folks — to communicate the needs.”

One major component that could factor in this time around is that Ag2School was passed at the last legislative session.

“We hope that helps and people understand that Ag2School doesn’t mean non ag property owners are paying higher taxes,” Monson said. “Some people think that the state is giving a 40 percent tax break to farmers and they’re going to have to pick that up, but that’s not the case. It’s a true reduction in ag property tax. It doesn’t increase anybody else’s. And it’s on existing or future referendum debt.”

For now, Monson said the district will continue doing the best it can.

“We get frustrated with the challenges, but we have to make sure we focus on the positives,” he said. “We have 20 students per class in first grade. We’re going to have 20 students in each second-grade class next year.”

Business director Bruce Lamprecht added that the district has also worked to be as proactive or reactive as possible.

“We’ve added a lot of support teachers, including EL teachers district-wide,” he said.

MPS currently has eight sections of kindergarten, with 23 students in each. There are nine sections of both first and second grade, with fewer than 21 students per class.

“Obviously, it changes every year,” Monson said. “There are times when we have more students in a classroom on average at a grade level. It will ebb and flow.”

If the number of students exceeds the targeted limit guidelines in the classroom, additional non-licensed support is considered and may be added. If a situation occurs where the guideline is far exceeded throughout an entire grade level, a request for an additional teacher may be discussed and reviewed by the principal, superintendent and potentially the Board of Education before a decision is made whether to add an additional classroom teacher. Physical space limitations are an important consideration in the overall decision-making process as well.

Preschool has its own staffing challenges as the ratio needs to be 10:1 or less. A stipulation is in place that says no more than 20 preschoolers can be in a classroom. A classroom of 18 is said to be ideal.

“The 10:1 means the first adult is an adult licensed teacher,” Monson said. “If it’s over 10 students, the second adult can be an assistant.”

After discussing the issue for a little longer, the board decided to make an amendment to the action item, approving the new motion with the K-2 class size being 20:1.

“We will accomplish it when we get the new building,” Swope said. “I’m optimistic the referendum will pass this time.”

Third- and fourth-grade target guidelines were approved at a student-teacher ratio of 23-24:1. Currently, there are eight sections of third-graders, with 22 students in each. There are also eight sections of fourth-graders, with an average of 23.5 students per class.

Marshall Middle School is primarily within the target guidelines. Fifth- and sixth-grade targets were approved at 24-25:1 and currently have 19 students and 23 students, respectively, per class.

According to the district guidelines, middle school staffing is a blended approach between primary level guidelines and secondary school staffing processes. The calculations are based on core classroom teachers. In addition, the middle school will staff exploratory/enrichment teachers shared equally among grades 5-8.

While the eighth-grade sections are 2 students below the target guideline, the seventh-grade sections currently have 27 students per class — 1 above the target.

“We know there are situations where we have too many kids in a class and we know the educational needs of our student population continue to grow,” Monson said. “That puts additional strain and stress on the staff and kids.”

At Marshall High School, staffing is determined by an allocation of staffing blocks and student sections based on a targeted average class size of 28 students. The district guidelines state that the high school administration determines the size of individual classes based on enrollment data, the needs of the building and the strategic goals and objectives of MPS. Class sizes can vary based on the type of class and the number of hours that it is taught.

Special education staffing has its own set of target guidelines, based upon overall caseload needs and demands. Caseloads may vary from teacher to teacher based on the overall identified needs, service times and other factors. The staffing process is directed by class size guidelines, student achievement results, overall student enrollment and classroom space available each year.