1 in 5 Minneapolis elementary schools over class size limit

One in five classrooms in Minneapolis exceeds the class size limits the district agreed to in a deal to end the teacher strike by 2022, according to a Sahan Journal analysis of Minneapolis Public Schools data.

The district proposed larger class sizes last spring to help balance the budget in the face of a massive shortage. But in recent weeks, parents have turned up at school board meetings to express their frustration over overcrowding.

Many parents spoke during the public comment period at a Dec. 10 school board meeting, asking the district to address class sizes.

Mina Thao, whose son attends Bryn Mawr Elementary School, tearfully spoke about how much her son loves his school. She explained that he has autism and when he first came to Bryn Mawr at age 3, he was nonverbal. Now, she said, he’s in fourth grade and “talks non-stop.”

“Ian is currently struggling here at Bryn Mawr because of the overcrowded classroom of 36 students,” she said. “It is important that his services are not delayed because of the size of the classroom.” During a recent test, she said, her son didn’t receive the support he needed because of the large number of students. As a result, he did not answer any questions in the test.

“Of course it’s easy. We can just take him out. We can make the choice to remove him from the Minneapolis Public Schools, just like we did for the rest of our other boys,” Thao said through tears. “But Bryn Mawr has a special place in my heart. Bryn Mawr helped me and my child more than any other school has.”

In a statement, Minneapolis Public Schools said it had made staffing changes to accommodate school needs.

“MPS is pleased to see higher than expected enrollment at some of our schools,” the district said. “So far this school year, MPS has allocated 19 additional staff to 16 locations and relocated some staff for needed support. Enrollment will continue to be closely monitored for the remainder of the year.”

Marcia Howard, president of the teachers’ division of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said teachers were overwhelmed by class sizes at an “all-time high.”

“It’s a recipe for parents to be unhappy with that school and/or district,” she said.

When Minneapolis Public Schools agreed to class size limits in 2022 as part of a new teacher contract that ended a three-week strike, teachers hailed it as a major victory.

Minneapolis’ class size limits vary based on the school’s poverty level and the students’ grade levels. Schools where 70% or more of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch have less class size limits. Schools with lower poverty levels have larger class size limits.

For example, third-grade classrooms at Bryn Mawr Elementary, where more than 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, are limited to 25 students. Those same classrooms at Lake Harriet Lower Elementary School, which has a lower level of poverty, are limited to 34 students.

But in in small print in the contract, Minneapolis Public Schools reserved the right to exceed the class size limit. If a classroom has too many students, the district can provide an extra aide, create a co-teaching model or reduce a teacher’s non-instructional duties. If all other options are not available, the district will pay the teacher $500 per extra student at the end of the year.

Even though the school district agreed to heavily language-restricting class sizes, the loopholes mean classes are bigger than ever, Howard said.

Last spring, facing a $110 million budget deficit, Minneapolis Public Schools proposed larger class sizes as a key strategy to balance the budget. At the time, district officials said they intended to increase the class size allocation of three students in lower poverty schools. Despite the increases, the proposed class sizes in the 2024-2025 budget would meet, or in a few cases fall below, limits in the teacher contract, officials said.

But it didn’t work out that way.

The Sahan Journal obtained class size data from Minneapolis Public Schools through a public records request. Out of 587 primary school classrooms, 121 exceed the class size limit – around 20%. In five elementary schools, at least half of all classrooms have more students than the class limit. Four of these schools serve predominantly students of color. At Folwell Elementary and Whittier Elementary, nearly half of the students speak Spanish at home. At Pratt Elementary and Bryn Mawr Elementary, the largest student demographic is Black. Lake Harriet Lower Elementary is a predominantly white, low-poverty school with higher class sizes.

The district statement did not address concerns about the large number of classrooms above the class size limit at those five schools.

Molly Katt, parent of a kindergartner and a second grader at Whittier Elementary, where half of all classrooms are over the class size limit, described her experience with the school as “honestly so amazing.” One aspect of the school she had appreciated for the past two years was Whittier’s small class sizes.

But this year, that changed for her second-grade daughter.

“I was actually quite shocked when she had 29 kids in her class this year,” Katt said. Her kindergarten son has a “manageable amount” of classmates, she added.

Her daughter has reported concerns with her large number of classmates: “People don’t always have a place to sit and the classroom gets really loud and she just doesn’t know everyone as well.”

Katt praised her daughter’s second-grade teacher for finding creative ways to handle the workload in her classroom and leaning on an aide. But she said the veteran teacher had expressed concerns about not being able to track each student’s learning as she normally would. Katt noted that larger class sizes also meant less attention to students’ emotional needs.

“They grossly underestimated in this school how many teachers are needed,” she said.

Correction: The percentage of classrooms above the class size limits at Folwell Elementary has been updated in the caption.