Murphy – The numbers are in for Cherokee County Schools kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms, and some are overcrowded – including a kindergarten class almost twice the average size.
Martins Creek Elementary School’s one kindergarten class has 27 students – well over the average class size of 16 in the state. Martins Creek’s first- and second-grade classrooms are also overcrowded by six to seven pupils, but its kindergarten overcrowding is especially troublesome.
The school has one class for each grade, but will have to add second classrooms for kindergarten and first grade to solve its overcrowding problems.
Martins Creek is not lacking for space. It had been an elementary/middle school until this school year, when its middle school was closed and those students transferred to Murphy Middle School.
The problem is a shortage of teachers.
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Schools Superintendent Keevin Woody told the board of education last month that the district is advertising to hire two teachers, one kindergarten and one first grade. Once those positions are filled, it will solve the overcrowding problem at Martins Creek.
The state average for kindergarten- through third-grade classroom sizes is 15-16 students. Martins Creek has 27 kindergartners, 22 first-graders, 19 second-graders and 20 third-graders.
The state average for fourth and fifth grades is around 20. Martins Creek has 15 fourth-graders and 21 fifth-graders, so those two grades are not a problem.
Other Cherokee County Schools campuses with overcrowded campuses are Ranger Elementary’s kindergarten, with 20 in one class and 19 in the other; Andrews Elementary fifth grade, with 27 in one class and 29 in the other (the state average is around 20); and Murphy Middle School’s eighth-grade, which averages 28.75 students compared to a state average of 20.
Murphy Middle School absorbed middle schoolers from Martins Creek, and although it converted the library into four classrooms, it still faces overcrowding.
Cherokee County Schools’ job portal lists the openings at Martins Creek, along with a math teacher and an English language arts/writing teacher at Murphy Middle, a career and technical education teacher at Andrews Middle, two school resource officers as well as bus drivers, among other openings.
District-wide, average class size with average class size statewide are:
- Kindergarten: 18.08 compared to 16.
- First grade: 15.57 compared to 15.
- Second grade: 16.86 compared to 16.
- Third grade: 16.93 compared to 16.
- Fourth grade: 18.45 compared to 20.
- Fifth grade: 20.3 compared to 21.
- Sixth grade: 19.55 compared to 19.
- Seventh grade: 21.4 compared to 20.
- Eighth grade: 23.67 compared to 20.
Cherokee County is over state averages in every grade except fourth and fifth.