Hearings on city’s class size plan starting Wednesday – make your voices heard!

May 20, 2024

Dear all —

1. Borough hearings on the DOE’s draft class size plan for next year begin this week this Wednesday, May 22 via Zoom. Please make your voices heard!

• Bronx – Wednesday, May 22, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Manhattan – Thursday, May 23, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Staten Island – Tuesday, May 28, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Queens – Wednesday, May 29, 2024 (6:00pm)
• Brooklyn – Thursday, May 30, 2024 (6:00pm)

To register and receive the Zoom link, go to https://tinyurl.com/2024classsizehearings, available by 5 PM the day of the hearing. If you cannot attend the hearing of the borough you reside in or where your child attends school, you can attend a different one that fits your schedule. The DOE is supposed to provide transcripts of these hearings to the state, to show that they’ve actually listened to parent concerns.

We have some talking points here, available as a downloadable pdf here. But please feel free to draw from your own experiences and perspectives.

It’s been nearly two years since the Legislature passed the new class size law, and but DOE has done nothing since then but cut school budgets causing class sizes to rise, and slash the funding available to build more schools. Currently, there is not a single school in the capital plan scheduled to be built in the Bronx — though the Mayor is planning to spend at least $2.9 billion to build a new jail in the borough. More about this in our talking points.

2. Please remember to buy your tickets to our Annual Skinny Award Dinner on June 12, to honor the independent parent members of the Panel for Education Policy who have done such valiant work in voicing their opposition to DOE policies, budget cuts and privatization. They along with Class Size Matters deserve your support! Food and drink will be served! More info and purchase your tickets here.