Schools

Recycling and Class Size Discussed at School Board Policy Committee

The July 28 School Board Policy Committee meeting explored the district's recycling process and talked about not limiting class sizes.

A meeting of the Upper Moreland School board’s Policy Committee took place after of the school board July 23.

Policy 132, “Recycling and Waste Reduction,” was discussed. The policy, which was last reviewed in 2003, was read at last week’s committee meeting.

According to Upper Moreland School District superintendent Dr. Robert Milrod, each school has designated bins used for recycling. He said that students, as part of an environmental club and in accordance with the policy's teaching conservation, come and take the recyclables away. The school district then pays for private companies to take the recyclables from the district.

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Chairman of the committee Mark Wenik pointed out that the policy states such arrangements to take care of the school district’s recycling are in accordance with township ordinances.

Board member Lisa Berlin then asked where the recycling should go, in terms of disposing the collected recycled materials.

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“That’s our problem,” Wenik responded.

Another discussed item was Policy 126, which deals with class size.

Policy 126, which was last revised in 2003, underwent a third reading at last week’s committee meeting.

At this final reading, before the committee passes revisions to the regular board meeting for approval, two main issues with the text were discussed, the first of which dealt with class size.

“Class size is a big deal. ‘25’ is the only number [mentioned] where it appears [in the policy],” Milrod said at the committee meeting.

He referred to the third paragraph under the policy’s Delegation of Responsibility, which stated, in part:

“… classes of approximately 25 students per class,”

He said that populating special education classes and advanced placement classes might have undesired effects on mainstream classes.

Berlin cautioned the wording might box the school district in committing to a numbered class size.

The majority of school board members agreed, and Milrod said that classroom sizes should be left to the discretion of the board in accordance to best practices.

The decision to take out the paragraph containing the number of students in a class was made.

Three other paragraphs were also taken out of the policy. These paragraphs dealt with the grouping of students in a classroom, based on interest, skill-level and age.


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