Keep Our Teachers · Montgomery Elementary
Board Meeting · Apr 29, 2026 · 6:00 PM · Kenwood Learning Commons
The Evidence on K–3 Class Size
Why eliminating a second‑grade position crosses a line the research has already drawn.
Forty years of randomized trials, long-run follow-ups, and replicated studies point the same direction: what happens in a K–3 classroom of 15–19 is meaningfully different from what happens in a classroom of 25 — and the difference shows up in reading scores, graduation rates, and adult earnings.
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Twenty-five is the loosest figure in Ohio's K–4 staffing rule — written as a district-wide average, used here as a per-classroom target. It is also the top of Project STAR's "regular-class" band (22–25), the group that finished 3rd grade seven months of learning behind their small-class peers. Florida's constitution caps the same grade band at eighteen. Montgomery is ranked #16 of Ohio's 1,706 public elementaries (Niche, 2025).
Project STAR
7.1 mo
Tennessee's randomized trial of ~11,600 K–3 students (assigned to small, regular, or regular + aide classes) found small-class students were seven months of learning ahead of regular-class peers by the end of third grade.
Finn & Achilles · EEPA · 1999
Into Adulthood
+1.8 pts
Chetty's follow-up linked STAR students to tax records 25 years later. Small-class assignment raised college enrollment at age 20 and produced higher earnings, home ownership, and retirement savings by 27.
Chetty et al. · QJE · 2011
The Equity Effect
~2×
Effects were roughly twice as large for Black students and students on free lunch. Dynarski measured about a +5–6 point college-attendance gain for Black STAR students, and up to ~+11 points for students least likely to attend.
Krueger 1999 · Dynarski · JPAM · 2013
Second grade sits at the reading hinge.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation (Hernandez, 2011) found students not reading proficiently by the end of third grade fail to graduate high school on time at four times the rate of proficient readers — and among children who experienced at least a year in poverty, 26% of non-proficient readers fail to graduate. Second grade is where that trajectory sets.
The math, honestly.
Keeping the position costs the district roughly $90–120K in total compensation. With next year's projected ~100 second graders, that is about $900–$1,200 per student per year — and the cut adds five classmates to every 2nd-grade room (four sections of 25 instead of five sections of 20). Krueger's 5–7% estimated return on STAR-scale reductions implies the lifetime-earnings impact per affected child is a large multiple of that.
Which subgroup of second graders does the board believe will absorb this class-size increase without measurable harm to their reading trajectory — and what evidence supports that belief?
Keep Our Teachers · Montgomery Elementary
Wed Apr 29, 2026 · 6:00 PM · Kenwood Learning Commons
A Parent's Guide for April 29
What to expect, what to say, and who is listening.
You do not need to be a policy expert to speak well. Specificity about your child and one piece of the research — delivered in your own voice — carries more weight than a polished speech.
How the meeting runs
- Arrive By 5:45 PM. Brody Burson (treasurer) keeps the public-comment sign-up in the entryway. Seats fill.
- Order Non-agenda public comment is at the start. Each speaker has 3 minutes.
- Response Board members do not reply during comment. They listen; your remarks are entered into the record.
- Notes Reading from notes is fine. Specificity about your child beats polish.
- Leaving You can speak, sit a moment, then go. Being present at the start is what counts.
What to say in 90 seconds
- Who "My name is ___, parent of a ___ grader at Montgomery Elementary."
- Ask "I'm asking the board to use its authority to keep five 2nd-grade sections at Montgomery next year."
- Frame "The research on K–3 class size is unusually clear."
- Evidence Pick one — STAR's seven months, Chetty's adult outcomes, or the 2× equity effect. One lands; three blur.
- Personal One concrete sentence about your child this year — a teacher, a small-group moment, a breakthrough.
- Close "I want to know which second graders the board believes can absorb this without harm."
- Thank "Thank you for your service." Sit down.
The board you will be addressing
President
Victor Harris
Retired Sycamore Jr. High social-studies teacher, 33 years in the district. Term ends 2027.
Vice President
Dr. Adrienne James
Retired Sycamore Superintendent, 33 years in the district. Educational consultant. Term ends 2027.
Member
Paul Balent
Global Sales Director, Nalco Water. Sycamore parent of two. Term ends 2029.
Member
Sara Bitter
Attorney at the Children's Law Center. Sycamore parent of two. Term ends 2029.
Member
Will Gosnell
Term ends 2029. Full biography not yet posted to the district site.
Treasurer / CFO
Brody Burson
Keeps the public-comment sign-up sheet. Also the records custodian for budget allocations.
All five at once: [email protected] · A personal note to one member carries more weight than a form letter to the group.
If you cannot attend in person, send the same message by email tonight. The full brief, citations, and a ready-to-send letter are at keepourteachers.org. What matters on April 29 is that the board sees this room full — every seat filled is a vote of concern the budget alone does not capture.