Let’s do some math. Pre-K math.

If the school system has about 400 students per grade, then about how many students are in the system? Assuming grades 1-12, that’s about 4800 students, right? And assume you want about 20 to 25 kids per classroom for each grade. That means you need between 16 to 20 classrooms per grade, times 12 grades to get an estimate of somewhere between 192 and 240 classrooms, right?

Now suppose you want to add a kindergarten. Can you figure out how many additional classrooms the system needs?

TRICK question! It depends on whether you want full day kindergarten – in which case you need another 20 classrooms for the extra 400 kids in grade “K” -- or whether you want the traditional half-day program. Traditionally, an elementary school might use the same classroom for two half-days, and so could add the 400 kindergarteners with only 10 new classrooms.

In more modern efforts and newly constructed schools, we see a push toward full day kindergarten, and so the system needs twice as many classrooms for K-graders as it used to.

And lately we’re seeing a big push for Pre-K programs. School for 4-year-old toddlers.

How many classrooms does the system have to build for 4-year-olds? Assume no population growth, no demographic bulge between the number of 4-year-olds from prior years and numbers of 6- or 10-year olds, and no difference in number of students per classroom. Did you figure on adding 20 new classrooms? Good for you!

That’s (partly) what’s been happening in Lancaster ISD lately. We’re seeing a LOT more pre-K students.

Did you know that classrooms for pre-K and K-level students cost more, each, than classrooms for first, second, on up to fourth graders? No?

We'll discuss why it costs more for a pre-K classroom in another post... (in other words, "to be continued" )