Lebanon schools adds four teachers to reduce class size

Lebanon — Matt Buress has two children in Lebanon Community School Corp. — one is in kindergarten and one in second-grade. Both are in large classes. But he’s only worried about one of them.

“I’m not here to talk about my second-grader,” he said, addressing the school board at Tuesday’s meeting. “I understand where we’re at financially, and I can accept this at a second-grade level. But at the kindergarten level ...”

Buress’ inferred concern was at the heart of Tuesday’s meeting. Three members of the public signed up to speak on the issue of large class sizes, particularly in kindergarten. But Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor beat them to the punch, addressing the problem during the first agenda item of the night, before the three came to the podium to speak.

Due to the large classes and increased enrollment corporation-wide — with 53 new students as of Wednesday — Taylor announced to the board Tuesday his recommendation to create four new teaching positions and 3.5 new teacher aid positions at the lower elementary levels.