GUILDERLAND — As several Guilderland parents raised concerns about large class sizes, Superintendent Marie Wiles told school board members, “We are experiencing a dramatic shortage of teachers.”

She noted the June 13 meeting agenda included lots of new hires and said, “It is increasingly difficult to find certified qualified teachers to come.”

A 2022 study, published by Annenberg Institute at Brown University, found more than 36,500 teacher vacancies in the nation with an estimated 163,500 positions filled by teachers who aren’t fully certified or are not certified in the subject area they’re teaching.

For New York State, the study found, 5,328 underqualified teachers, or 2.5 of every 100 teachers were unqualified, affecting about 20 of every 10,000 students.

The issue of large class sizes was raised in three different letters from parents of children in second grade at Altamont Elementary School.

Leanne Royer wrote that her son in kindergarten, because of COVID-related restrictions, had just 10 in his class but in first grade, she wrote, each of the two classes had 23 students, the maximum allowed by Guilderland’s guidelines.

“Our only saving grace in 1st grade was that each class had a full-time TA,” Royer wrote.

Second grade also started with each class at 23 students, but no teaching assistant until two months ago. “There is no way that ONE teacher can possibly help these kids to reach their maximum potential and quite frankly it’s unfair for anyone to expect that of them,” Royer wrote.

Similarly, Heather Reinemann wrote, “I know my daughter struggled personally when she got to 1st grade and the class size doubled.” 

She added, “I would love for these kids to experience a smaller class size and see what it can do for their confidence, ability to learn and quite frankly their overall school experience.”

Mya Sullivan wrote, too, that her daughter is in a second-grade class at Altamont Elementary School with 25 students. She requested a third section be added for next year’s third grade.

“Governor Kathy Hochul just passed a bill that NYC Schools do not exceed 20 students in a class for grades K3. Shouldn’t we use this recommendation as best practice for our early learners?” asked Sullivan, adding, “Now more than ever, the student’s emotional and academic needs have to be met, especially after living through COVID restrictions.”

“It’s not instant,” said board member Kimberly Blasiak of the law that will limit class sizes in New York City’s public schools, something teachers’ unions have pushed for for years. “There are also waivers for over-enrollment, for lack of space, for teachers who aren’t licensed yet,” said Blasiak.

The bill that was signed into law by Hochul in September 2022 will cap classes for New York City Public schools at 20 students in kindergarten through third grade, 23 students in fourth through eighth grades, and 25 students for high school classes while physical education and classes for “performing groups” must be limited to 40 students.

Mayor Eric Adams had lobbied against the bill because of the steep costs; the legislation was passed without additional funding. The city will have until 2028 to comply under an agreement with the legislature. 

Wiles went over the “guidelines” for class sizes at Guilderland.

“They are not caps or limits,” she said, “but they basically help us make decisions about the numbers of sections we have in each of our buildings at each of the grades.”

Guilderland has five elementary schools that feed into one middle school and one high school.

The guidelines for Guilderland are 18 to 23 students in kindergarten through second grade, and 21 to 25 students in third through fifth grades.

Altamont Elementary School currently expects 47 third-graders for next year, Wiles said, “which is actually three under the top of the guideline.”

She acknowledged that the same class, in second grade, did end up going over the guideline of 23 students “because we had a couple students who moved mid-year — that does happen — and because of the particular needs of the students and where we had the supports, they had to go in a particular classroom.”

Wiles called it “a game of prediction” trying to figure out what students will be enrolled where.

Because the Altamont parents had brought up class sizes at other schools in the district, Wiles provided those numbers. At Altamont, as of June 13, the class size average at third grade is projected to be 23.5. At Guilderland Elementary, it’s 21; at Lynnwood, it’s 19.75; at Pine Bush Elementary, it’s 19.5; and at Westmere Elementary, it’s 22.25.

“A couple of those buildings traditionally get a large number of students over the summer,” Wiles said, adding, “We also have other sections that are at the top of their guideline that we have to look at for potentially creating another section.”

Wiles added that, while finding qualified teachers for New York City to meet the new requirements is a challenge, “We are feeling the challenge right here.”

Board member Judy Slack, who has retired from being a teaching assistant herself, said that having teaching assistants in a classroom “certainly makes a difference but we’re having a hard time getting enough of those too.”

Wiles said that teaching assistants had been approved to be hired for Altamont Elementary’s second-grade classes last September. “To Judy’s point, it’s very hard to hire them, to find them. So I don’t think we were able to fill the position till about February,” said Wiles.

She concluded, “So that is yet another challenge. If those numbers continue to be high,” she said of the Altamont soon-to-be third graders “we can certainly look at that, but finding the people to do it is really difficult.”