Winona school board allowing students to attend elementary schools outside default attendance boundary to balance class sizes

WINONA, Minn. (WKBT) -- Winona Area Public Schools are trying to make elementary classrooms more balanced.

"We're really trying to have some control over capping that upper class limit so that we can avoid a situation where we might have a third-grade class in one building at 28-29 students and in another building we're in the teens," said Superintendent Brad Berzinski.

Last week, the board agreed to refine its attendance boundary policy allowing administrators to move students from one school to another to make classroom sizes equal.

The district has a total of 40 K-4 classrooms with some bursting at the seams while others have room to spare.

"The vast majority of those classes are below what we say is the target class size range, some well below," said Berzinski.

In Winona, classroom sizes vary depending on how many students live in an attendance area.

Instead of redrawing attendance boundaries every year to make up the difference, the school board decided it's easier to move enrollment from one school to another once class sizes reach capacity, regardless which school prospective students live closest to.

"We've always had those bubbles where this group is larger and this group is smaller," said Berzinski.

"We're trying to create some additional controls where we can move the upper end of classes into the targeted range and move our smaller classes into that targeted range."

The policy will apply to all elementary grade levels.

"We're not looking to displace students; we're not looking to displace families from their current school," said Berzinski.

"What we will do is, we will be very proactive. We're not going to add students to a particular school that is already at that maximum number at that particular grade level."

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