In 2018-19, Clay County District Schools opened Discovery Oaks Elementary School in the Oakleaf area of our District.  This location was chosen for a new school because the community has experienced a high rate of growth over the past five years that caused overcrowding at the two elementary schools within its boundaries, as well as growth in elementary schools just outside of these borders.

As the school was being built, the District projected an enrollment of 852 students, allocating classroom teachers accordingly and with an emphasis at the primary level (K-3).  As the year started and our monitoring of enrollment and specific class size calculations began, the school was experiencing fluctuations from week to week, with adjustments made or planned for by the District to how allocations were distributed throughout the school.  By the time Survey 2 ended, new student enrollments ultimately kept the class size marker above the acceptable threshold for K-3 despite overall school enrollment being under projection by nearly 40 students. This resulted in one intermediate position being reallocated.

After reviewing class rosters for reporting errors, including ESE programming and therapies, it was determined that the overages were due to the ongoing influx of families into DOE's school zone.

The following plan has been developed to maintain class-size at Discovery Oaks Elementary:

1. The District's Director responsible for state reporting will run class size metrics for all schools and grade bands twice weekly. These figures will be loaded into a shared document for viewing by the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Chief of Elementary Education, and Assistant Superintendent for Climate and Culture. An email alert will be sent to each person as the data is updated.

2. The Superintendent will request from the Board in Spring of 2019 a pool of teacher allocations that would be used to fill gaps when class sizes reach limits prior to Survey 2 in October of 2019.

3. Senior staff will review the information as it is updated twice weekly in order to monitor schools that are close to going over the class size requirement for Survey 2, new allocations or shifts in allocations for schools as needed.

4. This process will remain in place leading up to Survey 3, as well, in order to respond where needed and to better project allocations for the following school year.

Strategy 2.4: Ensure effective and efficient use of resources for fiscal stability.