The PTSA has received numerous questions and comments about class size this year at Somerset. Principal Gray included a discussion of this topic in her welcome letter to parents, which you can view here. Because the issue seems to concern many of our parents, we thought an additional explanation might be helpful.

The Bellevue School District staffs schools based on enrollment. For their budgeting purposes, there are maximum class sizes which vary by grade. Once every classroom in a program in that grade level reaches the maximum, an additional teacher is assigned to the school. (Of course, the capacity of the school building is also taken into account.) The principal then decides how to allocate the staff within the building. Sometimes, there are two grade levels with high enrollment but neither quite reaches the maximum. In that situation, one new teacher is assigned and the principal consults with the teachers as how best to utilize the additional help.

This year, the Gifted Elementary School Program (GESP) has been enlarged to include Somerset as one of its host schools. We have been able to accommodate the additional students by utilizing previously unused classrooms and moving the music program out into a new portable classroom on the playground. While the general education and GESP students are treated equally within the school, the curriculum of each program is quite different. The groups cover different topics in almost all subjects, and the students therefore cannot be mixed together in one classroom. This causes staffing challenges which have resulted in the differences in class sizes currently seen at Somerset.

For example, this year Somerset has two 5th grade GESP classes (each under 20 students) and three 5th grade general education classes (each nearing 30 students). The GESP 5th graders are obviously too many for one classroom, and their numbers reached the threshold for an additional teacher, splitting the group into two. The general education classrooms have not quite reached the maximum number which would send another teacher to the school. As explained above, the classrooms cannot be mixed together to reach a more balanced classroom size, and it is an unfortunate coincidence that the grade that happens to have the most general education students also has the fewest GESP students, making the difference in size much more obvious.

While the students are treated equally at Somerset, the GESP and general education programs are in fact run separately, though side-by-side. For this reason, class size ratios cannot be calculated across the entire grade level, but must be dealt with separately, by program.

All our Somerset classrooms are great places for learning. Because students have different needs, we offer different learning programs. Though teaching is different in the classrooms providing gifted services, those classes are not better. The best class is the class the meets the needs of the student.

We hope that this has been helpful information for you. We believe Somerset is an excellent school with some of the finest educators in the Bellevue School District. If you have any more questions relating to class size, please contact Principal Gray or Assistant Principal Bowlby directly to arrange a discussion.