Seekonk Elementary Class Sizes

Seekonk School Superintendent Rebecca Kidwell shared a plan for class sizes at Aitken and Martin elementary schools for the fall.

There will be five sections of kindergarten, an average of 20 students per section at Aitken. A sixth section may be added if necessary.

For first grade at Aitken, class sizes would be 22, 22, 21, and 17. At Martin, those sizes would average 19. For second grade at Aitken, the average would be 22 and Martin the average would be 18. For third grade at Aitken, the average would be 21 and at Martin the average would be 25. For fourth grade at both schools, the average would be 23. For the fifth grade at Aitken, the average would be 24 and the average at Martin would be 26.

“The discrepancy of course is that the Martin kindergarten sizes are 12, 12,12, and 13,” Kidwell said on Monday. “So that’s the imbalance that we couldn’t have anticipated. Geographically, we can’t move the line any further north without moving people who can see Aitken from their house, to Martin. It’s not what people want. We’re in a complicated situation here. There’s no secret area that we can just bus (students) to Martin without putting (students) on a bus for a really long time.”

Kidwell explained there’s no school building in the north end of town and Aitken is “really full.”
The school committee has discussed shifting the boundary line, which would allow for more of a balance of students at both elementary schools.

“Even if we move the line as far north as we can, it doesn’t encompass enough people to balance the development that the town has allowed in the north end. We are going to find a way to welcome your (children) appropriately to a kindergarten experience this year,” Kidwell added.

“We have to solve this problem and we have to solve it pretty quickly,” said committee chair Robert Gerardi. “As a school committee, we have to balance the cost, the academic potential, and how we’re going to solve this problem. I think we have to address this as soon as possible.”