Vancouver educators fight for safe class sizes

The Vancouver Teachers’ Union continues calls for improvements to class sizes, student safety

VANCOUVER, WA (August 22, 2024) – With school starting in less than a week, Vancouver Public Schools (VPS) is still unwilling to reduce class sizes to safe and manageable levels in contract negotiations with the Vancouver Education Association (VEA), per the union.

The VEA reports that the impacts of the dramatic round of layoffs in VPS last spring have loomed large over the bargaining process. With VPS cutting more than 150 classroom teaching positions, class sizes for the upcoming school year are now being pushed to the limit and beyond.

“Every day, we’re hearing from educators panicked about ballooning class sizes,” said Jamie Anderson, President of VEA. “Kindergarten classrooms with over 30 students, biology and chemistry labs with over 30 students, middle school math classes with over 40 students, just to name a few. It is not possible to support student learning or safety in such conditions.”

Large class sizes—challenging to manage even under ideal circumstances—are particularly worrisome to VEA educators as extreme student behavioral challenges have become a fixture in classrooms around the country. With fewer employees throughout the district, teachers are bracing not only for larger class sizes, but also fewer resources and supports to manage them.

“When the district assigns you to teach 30 five-year-olds and there’s a severe disruption on an almost daily basis, they force you to choose between teaching or keeping students safe,” Ms. Anderson said. “Doing both is out of the question.”

At the parties’ most recent bargaining session on August 20, VPS rejected all of VEA’s proposals to reduce general education class sizes. The VPS team has ominously suggested the possibility of an additional round of layoffs later this year as justification for its rejection.

“During the layoffs, the School Board said they wanted to keep cuts as far from the classroom as possible,” Ms. Anderson said. “Right now, none of our educators feel that has happened.”

The VEA contract expires on August 31, 2024. If the parties fail to reach agreement the VEA membership will meet next week to determine its next step—which may include a strike.

Learn more at vancouverea.org.