Previously published on February 1, 2022
Sioux City elementary schools are seeing the benefits of hiring more teachers using COVID-19 relief funds – smaller class sizes.
So far, eight new teachers have been hired for grades K-3 in four Sioux City schools with Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief, or ESSER funding.
The $57 million in ESSER funding the District received was budgeted for a variety of different departments impacted by the pandemic. About $7.5 million was earmarked to hire 36 additional teachers to reduce class sizes and combat learning loss for students.
At Bryant Elementary, two new teachers allowed the school to reduce the average first grade classroom size from 23 students to 19. In second grade classrooms, the average was cut from 25 students to 20 per class, with some classes having as few as 19 pupils.
“We really have the best class size ratios that we’ve had the 10 years I’ve been in the district,” Brian Burnight, the district’s director of elementary education, said Thursday.
Bryant second grade teacher Carrie Edwards teaches 18 students various math skills, including counting cents and identifying a hexagon.
Burnight said the smaller classrooms help give teachers more one-on-one time with students. Bryant principal Angela Holcomb said it also allows the instructors to be more responsive to the students and gives students more opportunities to speak and answer questions.
Burnight said the District worked with the local colleges and universities to find teachers who graduated in December, in the middle of the district’s school year.
“That’s been a real blessing that we have great partnerships with the local colleges to help get those students in the classrooms as soon as possible,” he said.
Once the ESSER funding stops in two years, the district would have to identify other funding sources to pay for the additional teachers, or develop other ways to keep the class sizes small.
While all of the elementary slots are filled, Burnight said the district will be hiring additional teachers in upper grades with ESSER funding.