Adjustments still being made for school class sizes

Central Florida is just about a month away before schools across the state will have to meet the new core class size requirements.

And on the 12th day of school, school districts do a head count to see where they stand on making sure they're in compliance. 

News 13 crunched Orange County school district's numbers and found that students may be adjusting their schedules by next week.

17 students in one class is picture perfect. It is well below the state maximum of 22. But in order to make it happen, more than 70 students all put into a symphonic band class. Last year there were only 50. There's no limit on elective courses. Principals have been using these classes to balance things out but in addition to larger classes, something else is about to change.

"Starting next week we will have to start adjusting kids schedules, so here they've been here for three weeks, they're getting settled and we will have to adjust them," said Ocoee Middle School Principal Sharyn Gabriel.
 
This week Orange County schools passed a pivotal point-- the 12th day of school. The state requires to do a student enrollment check.

Since the first day of school, elementary schools added more than 5,500 new students. Middle and high Schools added nearly 7,000 since the first day of school.

This week alone Ocoee Middle added 12 new students and for every new student that's an adjustment every student has to make.

"We set aside a little nest egg to allow us to hire extra teachers and we're hoping, fingers crossed that will be sufficient," said Orange County Schools Superintendent Ronald Blocker.

Blocker said the district is making plans for how many new teachers will need to be hired by Oct. 15-- the deadline the state has given schools to get in compliance with smaller classes.

"We just don't want to spend our time and energy on that we want to spend our time and energy on good instruction with our kids," Gabriel said.