A couple dozen parents with children at Mitchell Elementary in Ann Arbor held a rally Friday afternoon to raise awareness on how this year’s budget cuts are affecting the school.
Standing with their homemade signs on Lorraine Street where the campuses of Mitchell and Scarlett Middle Schools meet, the parents, kids and supporters rallied to let their neighbors know about the situation. They say that Mitchell has been hit hard with larger class sizes and staff reductions.
Keil Phegley is President of the Mitchell PTO.
“Last week, when we learned that of all the Title I schools in the district, Mitchell had the most cuts in terms of contract hours on teachers and staff and the most classes with rising student numbers. It was really shocking to be hearing that just a few weeks before school went back.”
Phegley says, since then, the district has informed the parents they will be hiring another kindergarten teacher to ease the class size situation. However, he and the other parents want to see more done, particularly since class size in the 4th grade is projected as high as 27 students.
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