A few weeks ago there was a public notice in the PTO mailbox at school put there by the principal. It basically said that the board of ed will be considering a waiver at the next boe meeting that would allow the student-instructor ratio to exceed the state requirements for grades K-3 in 3 elementary schools in the district. Attached to the notice was a post-it from the principal that said 'As the PTO Exec group I have to let you know we are over the state requirement for grades k-3--a meeting will be held. 2 kids-1 kid in grade 2, 1 kid in grade 2.' So basically there are 2 second grade classes that are over the requirement of 22 students per instructor by 1 student.
I had no idea why it was important that the PTO be informed of this so I asked one of the teachers that is also on the board. Apparently this will be the 3rd year for a waiver for our school for the same students. So this problem isn't going to go away. The teacher I talked to feels like as little attention as possible is given to this notice because the administration doesn't want to have to deal with everything that would be involved were the waiver not to be passed.
Even after talking to her I didn't understand what that had to do with the PTO. Does the PTO get notified because we represent the parents and therefore may want to dispute the waiver? If that is the case then I think I am not doing my job very well because I haven't a clue how the parents feel about this issue or even if they have an opinion.
So basically I guess I am asking if anyone else has encountered similar scenarios and what if anything have they done about it?
