House Bill 13 bringing changes to New Hanover classroom sizes

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A temporary reprieve, that needs a permanent solution.

A New Hanover County Board of Education committee met today to discuss what steps they need to take to adapt to the requirements of House Bill 13. That’s the bill that changes class sizes. Lawmakers passed HB 13 back in April.

With traditional public schools set to start next month, the New Hanover County Board of Education is making changes to classrooms.

“With the new legislation, it sets hard caps on district averages and also on class size so it’s really a space issue for us,” Eddie Anderson, assistant superintendent, said.

The committee says the 2017- 2018 school year will be a transition period. The schools will follow a one teacher for 20 students ratio for kindergarten to third grade.

“We think we are in pretty good shape for next year. But we want to start the planning process early for the 18-19 school year,” Anderson said.

But for the 2018 to 2019 school year, the teacher-student ratio changes, depending on the grade.

“The 18-19 school year is when the numbers would be one to 18 for kindergarten, one to sixteen for first grade, and one to 17 for second and third grade,” Robin Hamilton, Parsley Elementary school principal, said.

Some administrators are looking into what they can do to accommodate these new changes.

“‘What space do we have?’ maybe ‘what areas have we not traditionally used as class size space that we haven’t even thought about?’ But we need to look at everything and say ‘hey will this work? How can we make this work?’ So, to just really collaborate and work together to make it all work, so then the children are still getting the very very best education,” Hamilton said.

The class size compliance committee is hoping the schools will be able to accommodate the rules when the time comes.

They want to avoid the chance of redistricting.