District 742 to Add Staff to Lower Elementary School Class Sizes

(KNSI) — The St. Cloud Area School District will hire 14 new elementary school teachers after an enrollment snapshot Wednesday night showed class sizes at that level were too big.

The decision came after reviewing numbers for the 2023-2024 school year showing a rise in the number of kindergartners.

Superintendent Dr. Laurie Putnam tells KNSI News smaller class sizes have been something for which everyone has been asking. “One of the things that we know, both from research and from talking to our educators, is that class size matters. And so, we know that to build relationships, to provide the differentiated instruction, the fewer students we can have, the better. So one of our commitments this year has been to listen to our staff, listen to our families and prioritize that.”

District 742 is expected to add three kindergarten teachers and 11 first through fifth-grade instructors to try and keep classrooms to fewer than 21 students.

The study showed a decline in enrollment at Apollo High School, but because the district had to start planning for next year, they’ve offered contracts to all of their teachers and are committed to that staff. Dr. Putnam explains, “if students don’t show up in the fall, for whatever reason, and there’s a lower enrollment than we anticipated, then we just have lower class sizes. Which is wonderful, but not fiscally sustainable.”

If enrollment doesn’t improve, the school will need to cut two full-time staff in the future.

Also at the meeting, the district announced it is taking registration for its online school launching in the fall. Putnam says they have students enrolling from as far away as East Grand Forks.

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