Petition Circulated to Keep Classes Small at Larchmont's Chatsworth Ave. School

Parents of students at Chatsworth Avenue School in Larchmont are beginning to sign a new petition to keep class size small.

As of June 16, about 70 parents had signed the petition, which calls for fourth grade class size to remain at 22 or fewer students, instead of proposed increase to 26 or fewer.

Currently, Chatsworth has five fourth grade classes, but for 2014-15 that number could drop to four classes, according to a district budget document.

"If you believe academic performance will be affected by this change, we encourage you to sign the petition below to share your concerns with our school administration and Board of Education," states the email being circulated to parents.

The Board of Education is scheduled to meet Tuesday, and some parents intend to show up to voice their concern over the issue, according to one parent who corresponded with Patch. Tuesday's meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Tiered Classroom at Mamaroneck High School.

Below is the text of the petition email being circulated:

We have just been informed at the PTA meeting on Friday June 13th that there is a planned reduction in the number of 4th grade classes for the upcoming 2014-2015 school year. As a result, our 4th grade classes will have 25/26 students per class instead of the 21/22 students per class in our current 3rd grade.  If you believe academic performance will be affected by this change, we encourage you to sign the petition below to share your concerns with our school administration and Board of Education. 

Please click this link to add your support – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rbl2KOwGYYdCAuw9jcJxRe1mj9MzQoWZb-ynIKWvXF4/edit?usp=sharing

We, the undersigned parents of Chatsworth Avenue School are strongly opposed to the planned decrease in the number of classes for the 4th grade in the 2014-2015 school year.

We have just been informed at a PTA meeting on Friday, June 13 that the school plans to reduce number of 4th grade classrooms, thereby increasing class size from 21-22 students to 26 students per class.  We feel this increased class size will inevitably affect the academic performance of our 4th grade students.

We feel this plan is unfair due to the following:

1) Mamaoneck Avenue School has the same number of projected 4th grade students (103) in 2014-2015 school year.  While MAS maintains 5 classes, Chatsworth will have only 4 classes.

2) In the last 2 years, Chatsworth class sizes have been kept small. There has been only 1 class with 24 children. There have been NO classes with 25 or 26 students.

We feel a class size of 26 children is too large for 1 teacher and inconsistent with comparable class sizes in the school and the district.  We implore you to maintain 5 classes of 4th grade students at Chatsworth in the 2014-2015 school year.  As school taxes and the school budget increase, somehow the number of teachers decreases. We feel this is not consistent with the excellence we expect from our school system.

If you feel strongly……here is what you can do

·         Sign the petition at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Rbl2KOwGYYdCAuw9jcJxRe1mj9MzQoWZb-ynIKWvXF4/edit?usp=sharing

·         Voice your concerns to the Principals