Some Red Deer Lake School parents have raised concerns over a combined Grade 2 classroom, to the extent of pulling their children out of the school.
“It was a big decision to go elsewhere,” said Gillian Colborne, who lives within walking distance of Red Deer Lake School. “We saw that his (Gillian’s son) behaviour outside of school was declining. He would become stressed, fatigued and short-tempered. We found his opinion about school and schoolwork was declining. He was losing interest in school.”
Colborne said there are 11 parents concerned about the situation – four of whom have pulled their child out of the class.
Grade 2 students arrived at school in September to find they would be attending a combined-classroom of 47 students, which would be team-coached by two teachers. As well there are two educational assistants in the room.
Pam Rannelli, Foothills School Division superintendent of schools, stressed the students continue to receive a high-quality education and the class of now 43 students has a solid teacher-to-student ratio.
“We have two very experienced, very highly-skilled Grade 2 teachers who wanted to do some team-teaching and collaborate in combining classes,” Rannelli said. “Kids are not all together as a large group all day or in that large room all day. They are flexibly grouped into small groups.”
The teachers share their expertise.
“They really co-plan and co-teach and they selectively group kids for what they (the students) need,” Rannelli said.
She said the ratio for teachers to students is 1 to 21.5, and with the education assistants the adult ratio is about 1 to 11.
She said noise testing by an educational audiologist was done in the classroom and they were within recommended levels. As well teachers do wear microphones to be heard better. There has also been some sound-dampening in the room.
There has been some compromise at Red Deer Lake School as the wall is closed about a third at the back of the classroom.
Rannelli admitted communication with parents was a problem. There was no notice to parents about the combined classroom prior to the first day of school.
The combined-classroom was specifically designed for that purpose when the new Red Deer Lake School opened in 2007.
Christine McKim has an autistic child in the class. She said her son has thrived in the Red Deer Lake classroom after struggling in Calgary in Grade 1.
“This classroom model has been a good thing for him,” McKim said. “He is a totally different kid than he was last year. He wants to go to school, he’s excited to go to school. Last year, not a chance.”
She said the environment allows students to do group work to help each other with each other’s strengths.
McKim said she attended a meeting with other parents with division administrators earlier in the year in which test results from students in a combined classroom from about a decade ago at Red Deer Lake School were shown.
“They had a ton of proof that the kids, who are in Grade 12 now, that their test scores from Grade 3, 6 and 9, across the board, they were above the provincial standard,” McKim said.
However, mother Yael Moussadji still is concerned.
Moussadji, whose daughter Kennedy is in the class, said the teacher-student ratio is skewed by the number of the students in the room.
“I don’t really care what the student-ratio is,” Moussadji said. “When you pack 50 seven-year-olds into a confined space, it doesn’t matter how many adults are in the classroom. And we are certainly seeing the detrimental effects on our students.”
She said the classroom has affected Kennedy’s association and passion for learning and school.
“We know that this is a very critical time in developing when they are developing these learning goals that is going to carry them [students] through their entire academic career,” Moussadji. “She’s lost her passion, motivation to go to school and that has been the saddest part of it. ”
Moussadji has sent a letter to Premier Rachel Notley concerning the Red Deer Lake classroom.
She added Kennedy had an “excellent experience in Grade 1” at Red Deer Lake. Although Kennedy will finish the school year at Red Deer Lake School, Moussadji is planning to have her daughter attend another school in the fall.
“Red Deer Lake has always been an excellent school, that’s why I think some of the parents have been so disappointed with their experience,” Moussadji said. “Some of these kids that have left are actually second and third generation.”
The Colbornes are one of those families. Both Gillian and her husband, Luke, graduated from the K to Grade 9 school.
Gillian said it took a couple of months to decide to pull their son out of the class but the distractions for their son was too much. They have had a positive experience with the school for the past 11 years with their other children.
“I relate it directly to that classroom – the evidence is overwhelming,” Colborne said.
“The evidence is overwhelming. We had no problems first or second-year and no problems at the beginning of the year and then it started happening.”
Rannelli said the division met with a group of parents in January about the situation and is willing to talk individually with parents.
“I understand that there are still some parents who are upset and feel it is not meeting the needs of their child,” she said. “Parents always have a choice in terms of education for their children, but I think as a system we are competent in the learning going on in the classroom.
“We monitored the learning, and where kids are in their learning… We feel we have addressed everything as best we can, realizing it may not be the outcome that some parents want.”
Rannelli said there are no plans to go back to the traditional classroom this year.
Both Colborne and Moussadji said they were frustrated with the response they received from the Foothills School Division.
Colborne said she has noticed significant difference in her child since transferring to Millarville School, despite the parents having to make a pair of 40-minute round trips a day to and from school.
“A complete turnaround,” Colborne said.
“It’s just disheartening that Red Deer Lake wasn’t willing to acknowledge a concern and then address it. That classroom, it’s just a partition. You just turn a crank.”
