Haverford’s Elementary School Class Sizes Meet District Guidelines

Haverford Township School District’s elementary school class sizes are currently at or below the district’s guidelines in all five elementary schools, Assistant Superintendent Nancy Donahue told the Haverford Township Board of School Directors on Thursday night.

The district’s guidelines for class sizes are 25 students per section in kindergarten, first, second and third grades; and 29 students per section in fourth and fifth grades, Superintendent William Keilbaugh told the Havertown-Haverford Patch in an interview after the meeting.

All five elementary schools—Chestnutwold, , , Coopertown and —have classroom sizes which as of Thursday were at the district’s guidelines or below it, Donahue said.

“It sounds like we might actually get a year where no one’s upset, upset about class size,” said School Board President Denis Gray.

Two of the elementary schools are adding sections in September to account for increased enrollment.

Chestnutwold enrolled 15 new children over the summer and will be adding a kindergarten section and a first grade, Donahue said.

Lynnewood also picked up 15 new students, and will be adding a first grade section and a fourth grade section, Donahue said.

“Lynnewood is now our largest elementary school,” Donahue said.

Overall, the district will have added 40 additional elementary school students over the summer, Donahue said.

The district has 20 more children who are scheduled to register this week, Donahue said.

When the board asked Donahue about enrollment at the middle school and high school, she said those schools were getting more students in but not nearly as many as the elementary schools.

“We’re the best buy around,” for young families, Keilbaugh said, in terms of schools and housing.