One in five Minneapolis elementary classrooms exceeds class-size limits the district agreed to in a deal to end the 2022 teachers’ strike, 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 shortfall. But in recent weeks, parents have shown up at school board meetings to express their frustration with overcrowding.
Many parents spoke during the public comment period of a December 10 school board meeting, imploring the district to address class sizes.
Mina Thao, whose son attends Bryn Mawr Elementary School, spoke tearfully about how much her son loves his school. She explained that he has autism, and when he first came to Bryn Mawr at 3 he was nonverbal. Now, she said, he is in fourth grade and “is talking nonstop.”
“Ian is currently struggling here at Bryn Mawr due to the overcrowded classroom size of 36 students,” she said. “It is important that his services don’t get delayed due to the classroom size.” During a recent test, she said, her son did not receive the support he needed due to the large number of students. As a result, he didn’t answer any questions on the test.
“Of course, it’s easy. We can just take him out. We can make the choice to remove him from Minneapolis Public Schools, like we did for the rest of our other boys,” Thao said through tears. “But Bryn Mawr holds 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 adjust to school needs.
“MPS is excited to see higher than anticipated enrollment at some of our schools,” the district said. “So far this school year MPS has allocated 19 additional staff to 16 sites and shifted some staff for needed support. Enrollment will continue to be monitored closely for the rest of the year.”
Marcia Howard, president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said teachers were overwhelmed with class sizes at a “historic high.”
“It’s a recipe for parents becoming disenchanted with that school and/or the district,” she said.
When Minneapolis Public Schools agreed to class-size limits in 2022 as part of a new teacher contract, ending 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 level. Schools where 70% or more of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches have smaller class-size limits. Schools with lower poverty levels have larger class-size limits.
For instance, third-grade classrooms at Bryn Mawr Elementary, where more than 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch, are capped at 25 students. The same classrooms at Lake Harriet Lower Elementary School, which has a lower level of poverty, are capped at 34 students.
But in the fine print of the contract, Minneapolis Public Schools reserved the right to exceed the class size cap. If a classroom has too many students, the district may provide an additional aide, create a co-teaching model, or reduce a teacher’s non-instructional duties. If all other options are unavailable, the district will pay the teacher $500 per extra student at the end of the year.
Even though the school district agreed to strong language limiting class sizes, the loopholes mean that classes are bigger than ever, Howard said.
Last spring, facing a $110 million budget shortfall, 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 allotment by three students at schools with lower poverty levels. Despite the increases, the proposed class sizes in the 2024-2025 budget would meet, or in a few cases fall below, the limits in the teacher contract, officials said.
But that’s not how it played out.
Sahan Journal obtained class-size data from Minneapolis Public Schools through a public records request. Out of 587 elementary classrooms, 121 exceed the class size limit — about 20%. At five elementary schools, at least half of all classrooms have more students than the class-size cap. Four of those schools serve predominantly students of color. At Folwell Elementary and Whittier Elementary, nearly half the students speak Spanish at home. At Pratt Elementary and Bryn Mawr Elementary, the biggest student demographic group is Black. Lake Harriet Lower Elementary is a predominantly white, low-poverty school with higher class-size caps.
The district statement did not address concerns about the large numbers of classrooms over the class-size limit at these five schools.
Molly Katt, the parent of a kindergartener 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 pretty shocked when this year she had 29 kids in her class,” 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 quite as well.”
Katt praised her daughter’s second-grade teacher for finding creative ways to manage the load of her classroom, and leaning on an aide to help. But she said the veteran teacher had expressed concern about not being able to track each student’s learning the way she normally would. Katt noted that larger class sizes also meant less attention to students’ emotional needs.
“They've been grossly underestimating in this school how many teachers are needed,” she said.
Correction: The percentage of classrooms over class-size limits at Folwell Elementary has been updated in the photo caption.
