photo by: Sylas May

Current Lawrence school district estimates call for about a third of the district’s elementary classrooms to be multigrade next school year, and one school has opted to convert all its elementary classrooms to multigrade.

The number of multigrade classrooms won’t be finalized until August, but the district is currently estimating that 40 of its 119 elementary classrooms, or about 34%, will combine grade levels. Which students end up in a multigrade classroom will vary between schools and grades, and at least two schools have already begun notifying parents of plans to combine classes. Parents will be notified of official placements in August.

As of now, eight of the district’s 13 elementary schools will have some number of multigrade classrooms, while five schools won’t have any at all, according to information from the district. The five schools not planning to have multigrade classrooms are Cordley, Hillcrest, Langston Hughes, Prairie Park and Schwegler elementary schools. The eight schools that plan to have multigrade classrooms range from one to nine multigrade classes buildingwide.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district table shows how many multigrade classes, and at which grade levels, each elementary school currently plans to have.

Why multigrade?

The multigrade classrooms came about as part of the district’s efforts to address a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall due in part to declining student enrollment. Though low enrollment is a key factor in whether a school decides to combine grades, district officials say there are other factors that go into the decision.

The district proposed closing four elementary schools — Woodlawn, New York, Broken Arrow and Pinckney — earlier this year due to declining enrollment. Ultimately, the Lawrence school board voted to forgo any school closures for the coming school year, and instead approved $6.4 million in other cuts to address its budget shortage, including the creation of multigrade classrooms and approximately 90 staff cuts.

District spokesperson Julie Boyle said whether a school will have multigrade classrooms and how many such classrooms it will have depends on projected student enrollment, available financial resources, and building administrators’ discretion of how to best utilize staffing allocations. She said schools are allotted the number of teachers they will be assigned based on their projected enrollment, but that some elementary schools in low-income areas qualify for additional federal funding that also could affect staffing or class formats, depending on how school administrators decide to use those resources.

Multigrade classrooms allow more possibilities for combining classrooms with low numbers of students, thereby resulting in fewer classes overall and the need for fewer teachers, as the Journal-World previously reported. The change was projected to reduce the district’s need for elementary teachers by 24 full-time positions, saving the district up to $1.47 million next school year.

Boyle said that some of the operational efficiencies that come with multigrade classrooms are the leveling out of elementary class sizes, noting that some schools had small class sizes compared to the average.

“With the board-approved budget reductions, class sizes will increase and even out across the elementary schools,” Boyle said.

Budget documents previously shared with the board indicate that in the 2021-2022 school year, class sizes ranged from 13 to 28 students for kindergarten through second grade and from 15 to 28 students for grades three through five. Projections for next year estimate that class sizes for kindergarten through third grade will range from 17 to 25 students and class sizes for grades four and five will range from 20 to 30 students.

Some details announced

Woodlawn Elementary in North Lawrence has opted to make all its classrooms multigrade. Woodlawn has reduced the total number of classes schoolwide from 12 to nine. Three classes will combine kindergartners and first graders, three classes will combine second and third graders, and three more classes will combine fourth and fifth graders.

An announcement to Woodlawn families states that as the current enrollment stands, Woodlawn is going to have combination classes at every grade level. Several reasons were cited for the decision, including continuity across the building, level class sizes, and consistency with building schedules and other systems.

Though the announcement states details are still being worked out, Woodlawn is planning for combo kindergarten and first grade classes and combo second and third grade classes to have “small group rotations” within the classroom for different subjects. Fourth and fifth grade combo classes will run like a “mini middle school,” where students will have a homeroom and rotate through 90-minute blocks with multiple teachers, who will each be assigned to teach one subject.

The school with the second-highest number of multigrade classrooms as of now is Sunflower Elementary. In an announcement to parents, Sunflower Elementary Principal Melissa Blevins said Sunflower would go from 22 to 18 classrooms next school year. Sunflower plans for seven multigrade classrooms, all of which will combine kindergartners and first graders.

Blevins listed some positives of the model, including the ability for many kindergarten students to stay with their teacher two years in a row, the ability for first graders to be peer mentors, and good alignment between the curriculum for kindergartners and first graders.

New York Elementary will have two types of classrooms that combine students of different ages. In an effort to increase enrollment at New York, the board approved a plan to begin transitioning the school to a free, public Montessori school. The Montessori format essentially uses multigrade classrooms, as children in Montessori schools stay together in the same class for three years. The school board approved the addition of three “Children’s House” Montessori classrooms for next year, which serve ages 3, 4 and kindergarten.

Apart from the three Children’s House classrooms, New York will also be using a multigrade format in the upper grades that are still using traditional teaching methods. New York estimates it will have five multigrade classrooms — one class that combines first and second graders, one class that combines second and third graders, and three classes that combine fourth and fifth graders. Other schools will have varying numbers of multigrade classes, with Broken Arrow having one, Deerfield having six, Pinckney having four, Quail Run having two and Sunset Hill having six.

Boyle said that elementary principals have been asked to submit their class plans to the district by July 1, and district staff previously told that board that plans will be finalized in August once the district has actual enrollment numbers.

As the upcoming school year approaches, Boyle said that elementary schools will share more information with families about their plans for supporting students in multigrade classrooms. She said the district encourages school families to visit with their child’s school principal or their child’s teacher about any questions or concerns about a multigrade classroom placement.