PW-S panel mulls class size policy amid worries about staffing cuts

A Port Washington-Saukville School Board committee recently considered creating a class-size policy, a move that comes after parents told officials earlier this year that staffing cuts have resulted in elementary school class sizes that compromise education and overtax teachers and warned additional changes planned for the coming school year threaten Port Washington High School’s respected music programs.

Ultimately, the Policy Committee decided against drafting a policy in favor of creating an administrative guideline that would set minimum and maximum class-size parameters but give administrators the flexibility they need to manage student-to-teacher ratios while balancing increasingly challenging budgets.

“I see this being more of an AG (administrative guideline) rather than a set-in-stone policy,” School Board President Sara McCutcheon said during the July 13 meeting. “I like having the parameters, but in our current climate and the way we’re funded and our budget, there are tough decisions that have to be made that may not always fall within (a policy).”

If the School Board adopts a class-size policy, committee members said, it may be faced with having to constantly change it as it balances a desire for reasonable class sizes with the reality of how many teachers the district can afford to employ.

“I think it’s nice to have it written down, but to Sara’s point, it is just such a fluid situation. As much as I love policy, I don’t  want to have to adjust it constantly,” Policy Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Trigsted said.

Supt. Michael McMahon said administrators are looking for “guardrails” when it comes to making staffing decisions.

“I would say the administration’s recommendation is that it (a policy) would provide me with guardrails,” he said. “It triggers some action. If we hit that (class size) threshold, we need to add a teacher.”

McMahon said a policy would also help staff members understand why certain staffing changes are made.

The committee reviewed class-size policies from the Cedarburg and Mukwonago Area school districts and preferred the latter because it offered more flexibility, although it ultimately chose to go the route of an administrative guideline.

While Cedarburg’s policy sets specific ranges for grade levels, for instance 18 to 24 students in kindergarten and first grade, Mukwonago’s sets a target size and suggested maximum size. Its target class size in kindergarten through second grade is 22 students per class, “with effort being made to avoid primary class sizes exceeding 25 students.”

When asked why the policies of other area school districts weren’t presented to the committee, McMahon said, “Many of our local comparables do not have a (class-size) policy.”

Committee member Elisa Pionek suggested that as long as it was discussing class sizes, the committee should address concerns raised previously about staffing changes.

“I was hoping we could use this as an opportunity to address some of the concerns we heard from parents a couple of months ago, specifically the music parents,” she said. “I did think the parents and students had some valid concerns. (Music) teachers have more students to assess. There’s more prep work involved.”

Those concerns stemmed from a schedule change at the high school set to begin in September that was key to balancing the 2026-27 budget and will require educators to teach six classes a day, one more than they had previously been required to handle.

The budget also focuses on maintaining full-time positions — considered important for teacher recruitment and retention efforts — which means that four high school educators will also teach courses at the middle school to give them the six classes they need to remain full time.

Among those teachers are Port High band teacher Chris Clouthier and choir teacher Dennis Gephart. Forcing them to teach additional courses and travel to the middle school, parents said, threatens a renowned music program that brings students to the district.

Kristine Morano, a product of Port High’s music program who became a music teacher elsewhere but was laid off because of budget cuts, told the School Board in May that the demands of music classes are different than those of other classes. In addition to managing large classes, music teachers spend significant time outside of classes, or “between the bells,” tutoring students, preparing for concerts and other performances and leading valuable extracurricular programs, she said.

“I would like you to let them stay (at the high school) so they can take on those extra hours between the bells as part of their class time,” Morano said, noting that she enrolled her daughter in the district under the open enrollment program because of its music program before moving to Port Washington.

Also in May, parents of elementary school students told the board that staffing changes made ahead of the 2025-26 school year resulted in class sizes that compromise learning and overburden teachers.

“Over the last five years, our staff and students have endured a whirlwind — shifting leadership, three new curricula, rising behavioral challenges and a steady decrease in support staff,” Ali Zalewski, who taught in the district for 15 years before stepping away to raise her five children, who are in 4-year-old kindergarten through fifth grade in the district, said.

“To now max out these classrooms feels like the breaking point in an already strained ecosystem.”

In addition to putting teachers in a situation where “burnout is a predictable outcome,” crowded classrooms compromise learning, she said.

“For my first-grade student, a maxed-out classroom is a louder, more overwhelming environment. The quiet child stays silent. The struggling learner waits longer for one-on-one help. We’re asking our youngest learners to navigate high-intensity environments before they have learned to regulate their emotions,” Zalewski said.

While committee members said they are willing to discuss those concerns, they agreed such a discussion should be had by the School Board rather than the Policy Committee, and that it should focus on all grade levels in the district.

“I think that discussion is outside of this (class-size) policy, and if we’re going to have that discussion, it needs to be a K-12 discussion,” McCutcheon said.

McMahon said he would bring staffing information from comparable school districts to the board along with feedback from Port-Saukville teachers and parents in the future.

He said an administrative guideline on class sizes will probably be drafted for consideration later this year.