Welches Elementary School will get some assistance for the school’s large first
grade class, with 37 students, beginning Jan. 3, 2012.

Principal Alex Leaver announced a half-time teacher will be added to reduce
the size of the class during mornings.

“That’s a huge gift of time,” explained Leaver. “Those students will be
receiving more attention than their counterparts across the district. I’m
excited for them.”

The new teacher, Lisa Sheppard, has worked at Boring Elementary School and
Firwood Elementary School as an education assistant, served as a substitute
teacher at Sandy Grade School and earned a “Cleo” volunteer award from
Firwood in the 2005-06 school year.

Sheppard will help teach math and reading, with students split evenly
between two classrooms. The position is a temporary one that will last until
the end of the school year.

At the start of the school year, school administrators expected up to 29
students in the first grade while also experiencing a larger than expected
kindergarten class. Leaver used Title 1 funding (given to schools based on the
number of students receiving free or reduced lunches) to facilitate a reduction
in class size for that grade, but no money was available at that time to reduce
the first grade class.

Julia Monteith, Oregon Trail School District’s Communications Director, wrote
in an email that the money for the temporary half-time position came from
the district’s general fund and will decrease the district’s reserves for the
2012-13 school year.

“We will need to address (the reserves) as we develop next year’s budget,”
Monteith wrote. “But we simply couldn’t justify a first grade class of (37)
students.”

The news was welcomed by Kelli Ewing, a mother of twins in the first grade
who spoke about her concerns over the class size at the September school
board meeting, held at Welches Elementary School.

“I’m very excited,” Ewing said. “I’m glad that they were able to make
something happen.”

Ewing added that while a number of parents stepped up to help out in the
classroom, she did see some negative impact on the students due to the size
of the class.

“I definitely see a bunch of the kids struggling and not getting the attention
they need,” she said. “A lot of kids seem to get frustrated because the
neediest kids get the attention. If that would have continued, I wouldn’t have
been surprised if they were falling behind on their test scores and academic
progress.”