The crowded kindergarten classes at Kennedy School worry Erin Botz.

Her son, Andrew, began kindergarten Monday in the school’s afternoon program along with 29 other students. With 30 students, the school’s afternoon kindergarten was the largest in the district. Its morning program came in second with 27 students.

Christine Reed, a para-educator at Kennedy School, works with an afternoon kindergarten class on some writing exercises. Kennedy has some large kindergarten classes that required the addition of more support staff. Reed worked with the students Thursday.

“Class size makes a difference and the classes are large,” Botz said. “I just worry the class size could be a burden on the teacher and impact the students.”

Bigger kindergarten classes are among the growing pains this fall across the school district, which is seeing an unexpected increase in enrollment after two years of declining student numbers.

While the district won’t report its official head count to the state until Sept. 22, there were 9,944 students in Lawrence public schools Monday, the first full day of classes.

Kindergarten enrollment is 703 students, the most since 1999.

Kennedy principal Clim Clayburn said she understood Botz’s concern.

Clayburn said she was given the option of adding a third section of kindergarten at the school, but that would have meant hiring a teacher just before school began. She went with another option the school district offered: hiring two paraprofessionals to help in the classroom.

“It was a difficult decision, but I have to weigh everything and decide what will be in the best interest of the students,” she said. “You can have small class sizes and it’s good for the children. But it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have a good teacher in place and ready to go.”

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This is the second consecutive year Clayburn has had to make such a decision. Last year, she hired an additional teacher. But Clayburn opted for the support staff this year based on what she learned a year ago.

It took time to bring the new teacher up to speed on various programs at the school, Clayburn said. To get the training needed to teach the class, Clayburn said the teacher was out of the classroom at the beginning of school, which was a disservice to the students.

“We have to make sure the students are getting equal opportunity for learning,” Clayburn said.

Botz said she thought Clayburn had a good plan in place, but that the class size situation could have been handled well before the school year began.

“Maybe it’s too late this year, but maybe it will make a difference next year,” she said.