The public school board is rejigging the size of some full-day kindergarten classes after several classrooms were overcrowded — one with 43 children.

Seven extra full-day kindergarten classes have been opened across the city because of large class sizes, said Pam Reinholdt, executive superintendent of student achievement at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Strathcona School in west Hamilton had the biggest classroom of 43 children. However, six other schools also had kindergarten classes with enrolment in the high 30s: Pauline Johnson, Franklin Road, Westwood, R.A. Riddell — all schools on the Mountain — as well as Mary Hopkins in Waterdown and Queen Victoria in Corktown.

Each of these classes has been broken into two smaller groups, Reinholdt said.

The school board's goal is to keep all full-day kindergarten classes, which are staffed with a teacher and an early childhood educator, at 30 or fewer children.

Michelle Tome sent her four-year-old to Balaclava in Carlisle last week and was dismayed to discover 33 students in his class. The teachers have been "fantastic" so far, but she questions how they will have any one-on-one time with so many children.

She is now considering keeping him home one day a week so she can give him individual lessons.

The school has said they need two more children to enrol so they can break the program into three classes, Tome said.

"It should be about what's in the best interests of the children, not about money and numbers."

Another parent whose child is in a class that meets the size guideline says there are still too many kids in the classroom.

"She's in a classroom with 29 other kids between the ages of 3½ and four — I just think that's way too much all at once," said Stacey Marshall, whose daughter Rhys started full-day kindergarten at Earl Kitchener School this year. "My daughter is kind of shy, so I'm worried she's not going to get the attention that she needs."

In the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School board, classes — one each at Blessed Theresa and Regina Mundi and two at St. Anne's in Ancaster — have more than 30 students. The largest kindergarten class size in the Catholic board has 33 kids.

Unlike other early childhood education programs, there is no cap on class sizes for full-day kindergarten. The provincial government limits all other primary classes to 23 students, while licensed daycares have mandated ratios of caregivers to children depending on the age group. (For example, for preschoolers, one adult is required for every eight youngsters.)

Instead of capping class sizes, the province mandates that the size of all kindergarten classes must average out to 26 students per class across the entire board.

Though most full-day kindergarten classes in Hamilton have somewhere between 28 and 30 kids, others have fewer than 15. Not only does this makes it easier for the board to keep its average class size under the 26-student guideline, but kindergarten classes with fewer than 16 students only require a teacher and not an early childhood educator.

However, that means if there are 75 kindergarten students at a particular school, they would be divided into three classes: two comprising 30 students and one of 15. That can be a bitter pill to swallow for parents whose children will end up in either a large or small class based on chance.

Still, Reinholdt said having two adults in full-sized kindergarten classrooms means students will get the attention they need.

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"I think it's very workable, and our teachers and our early childhood educators receive a great deal of training."

Last year, the public board averaged 25.3 children per full-day kindergarten class, with no single class breaking the 30-student mark. Those numbers aren't yet available for this year, as the board has until Sept. 29 to solidify enrolment.