STEM Academy To Maintain Class Sizes

Thursday evening, a meeting was held between the Waukesha Board of Education and the STEM Academy Board to analyze the conditions of the , specifically its class sizes. Collectively, the boards chose not to reduce the number of students per class, at least for the upcoming school year.

A recently founded charter school, the Waukesha STEM Academy has two campuses and accepts students from grades K–8. With the new academic year approaching, several concerns regarding the STEM Academy were brought forward on Thursday with hopes to improve the school for this fall.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Several of the issues pertained directly to the teachers. According to one board member, the faculty feels overwhelmed with large class sizes, special limitations and the rigors of a new facility.

However, the primary underlying concern is the large class sizes of the school. When the charter was first drawn up for the STEM Academy, the limit was 28 students per class. According to members of the board, there is an average of 24.7 students per class at other schools in the district.

“Unfortunately, we have to deal with numbers,” said Daniel Warren, president of the Waukesha Board of Education. “It relates to ‘Is my child going to be in or not?’ The number is a big deal in terms of how we allocate resources.”

Ryan Krohn and Christopher Kluck are the principals of the Saratoga and Randall campuses of the STEM Academy, respectively. When asked if the academy would maintain its academic effectiveness with the same number of students per class this year, Krohn said yes.

Though the class sizes will stay at 28 for the ’11-12 school year, the board intends to review the current charter for the STEM Academy, while also looking to choose the minimum and maximum class sizes year by year.