As a member of the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education, I would like to respond to the Letter to the Editor titled "Defends reconfiguration proposal" (Feb. 15 Falls News-Press, Page 9). Clarification is needed regarding the percentage of open-enrolled students attending Silver Lake Elementary. Currently, 253 students attend Silver Lake, and 62 students are "intra" district open-enrolled, meaning these students are residents of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District, not from cities outside our district. "Inter" district open enrollment consists of 57 students from other districts outside Cuyahoga Falls. Therefore, the "inter" district open enrollment at Silver Lake is 23 percent, not 47 percent as claimed by the author.
An easy way to remember the difference between the two is: you travel on an intra-state highway between cities in the same state and travel on an inter-state highway when traveling a highway between cities in different states.
The Silver Lake Elementary's afternoon kindergarten does have a class size of 15, but the author failed to mention that the ratio of students to teachers, by my calculations, ranges from 20.9 at Preston Elementary School to 25.7 at Roberts Middle School. Bolich Middle School is at 21.03, Silver Lake is at 21.08 and Lincoln Elementary is at 23.1. Class size/ratios overall appear to be pretty balanced and never will all class sizes be perfectly balanced due to the fluctuation of our communities' populations.
The entire district and our communities face "burdensome expenses," not just one school. Going forward, tough decisions will need to be made by all, but these decisions need to be weighed with correct information.
Curt Grimes
Silver Lake