Over the summer, the Board of Education was carefully finalizing the school budget.

The outcome was 80 fewer teachers at the 61 schools across Frederick County. The Board of Education voted in favor of increasing the class size by one student, but in reality this can mean that in some high school classes, the class size could change by five or more students.  

As a result, Linganore lost 2.5 teaching positions (.5 in physical education, .5 in social studies, .5 in math and one in English.) 

Some classes do have the 19:1 ratio, but other classes like AP Psychology have 32 students, and Philosophy of Knowledge has 38 students.

The size of the class does vary from each subject, depending on popularity.

With the class sizes getting larger and larger each year, frustration is rising, not only from the students but also with the teachers.

“I’m furious,” said Mr. Tony Miller. Miller is teaching two Advanced Placement Psychology classes with over 30 students in a class.

“With a large class size, it reduces the time with individual students. It takes the specialness out of teaching,” Miller said.

“If you think about how many minutes I have to teach each kid and still talk, then that would be three minutes per student,” said Mr. Seth Roberts, who teaches Philosophy of Knowledge.

Teachers like having time to go to each of their students to make sure the students are on the right track. Having more than 25 students in one class makes it challenging for students to find more individual time with a teacher.

“I’m anxious to start the Dual Enrollment in January because it’s mandatory to only have 20 kids in class. It’s been many many years since I had a class that small. I am looking forward to the impact of that,” said Miller. However, 20 students is misleading. Actually, Miller will have 20 students Monday and Wednesday, and 20 Tuesday and Thursday. All together he will have 40 students for his class; however, they meet only 20 at a time.

English teacher Mrs. Samantha Servey said, “It is hard when grading essays because the students don’t get a lot of feedback like they do normally.”

Feedback on papers is needed to help each student improve on his/her writing skills in any class, not just English. Teachers may not be able to spend even 10 minutes on a paper because they have 30 other ones to read.

“The best way to control a class so large is to keep a smile on your face and make things fun,” Servey said.

Governor Larry Hogan who ran on a “less tax” platform is now seeing that more money needs to go to the Board of Education. Hogan’s administration  has promised more money towards education than any governor in the history of Maryland. The administration provided a breakdown on how the money will be distributed.

•  $6.1 billion in K-12 total investments
•  $318 million in school construction
•  $109 million in additional K-12 funding over FY2015
•  $68 million in discretionary education funding (GCEI)

The Frederick County Board of Education has written the new budget plan for 2016-2017 to present to Jane Gardener, the County Executive, with the breakdown of what they plan to use the money for next year.