Dear Waverly Families,
I just wanted to keep you informed about some recent changes that took place as a result of an increase in kindergarten enrollment. Families who were directly impacted by these changes received an explanatory phone call and a letter very similar to what follows over the Memorial Day weekend. Although your child’s class placement was not changed as a result, I did want to make sure that the entire Waverly community was aware of these changes.
"In the last few weeks, Waverly has experienced a significant rise in enrollment in kindergarten. At this time, our kindergarten enrollment has increased to 258, while the first grade is currently at 216 students. Such changes are unpredictable and our school must adjust its staffing and/or schedules in order to accommodate all incoming students. Maintaining small class size and the best educational environment for all students are our top priorities.
The district has made the following decision in order to maintain favorable class sizes of approximately 22 students in kindergarten and grade one. Due to the large influx of kindergarten students, as well as the smaller number of grade one students, we moved a first grade teacher from grade one to kindergarten. Mrs. Julie Zuzolo (formerly DeCintio) will be teaching this new section of kindergarten. She is an experienced teacher with two years of kindergarten experience at Waverly. She is currently in the process of gearing up to teach her new grade level, and I am confident she will do a fantastic job!
Given this necessary change, the students originally placed in Mrs. Zuzolo’s grade one class were distributed among the other 10 sections of grade one teachers by adding approximately two students to each class. The result of this change allowed us creates a 12th section of kindergarten without hiring a new teacher. While many of the new students have already been placed in Mrs. Zuzolo’s kindergarten class, it was necessary to move some children out of their original kindergarten sections and into this newly formed class in order to create more favorable class sizes in each section."
We welcome our all our students and families, and look forward to the opening of school. Thank you for your understanding, and support. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 914-793-6130 X 5502.
Sincerely,
Jeff Melendez
