At Riverview Elementary in Farmington, school officials are experimenting with blended multi-age classrooms that have students of different grades in the same room being taught by multiple teachers.
The move is an academic exercise, but it also is addressing an overcrowding problem at the school that has seen parents complain about class sizes that in some instances are at 29 or 30 children per teacher.
"It's just not fair," said Kathy Scovill, one of the parents at Riverview pushing to have the class sizes reduced. "These kids are being asked to sit in classes of 30 students and you're asking them to perform. They're not going to do well."
The numbers are above the school district policy of student-teacher ratios, which call for 25-28 students in general third and fourth grades.
The numbers are well above those recommended by Education Minnesota, the union representing more than 70,000 educators in the state. That group recommends class sizes of 21 and under through the ninth grade and 17 in kindergarten through third grades, where the biggest problems are at Riverview Elementary.
Parents at the school said there are other schools in the district facing overcrowding, including Akin Road Elementary, where everyone agrees there is no more space for instruction and the district is looking to convert some other space, such as conference rooms, into teaching space.
Laura Pierce, the principal at Akin Road, said the school has grown from 663 students last year to about 716 this year.
"All of our classroom space is being used at capacity," said Pierce, who plans to hire a math specialist but must now figure out where to put that person and where kids will be instructed.