Pope Families,

At Pope, we are fortunate to have incredible teachers that work closely in teams.  This guarantees that all students receive an outstanding education.  Balanced classrooms are critical to ensuring that the needs of ALL students are met.  We work hard during the spring and summer months to make sure every class has a good balance of strengths and needs.  We pay close attention to academic and behavioral needs, which students work well together and which students don’t learn as well together, as well as balancing the boy/girl ratio.

While we begin creating class lists in the spring, they are not finalized until just before school begins in September.  The reason for this is that we have students enrolling and withdrawing all summer long.  If students move in or out and greatly sway balance of a class at a grade level, we will re-balance the class.  Our goal is always to make every single class as strong as it can be. 

I know that sometimes families want to request one “type” of teacher or another.  One challenge with this request is that our staffing changes all summer long.  For example, let’s say a family requests an exceptionally warm and nurturing teacher in the spring and their child is tentatively placed with that type of teacher.  Over the summer, that teacher moves and is replaced with a teacher who has a more business-like demeanor.  If the family is expecting one type of teacher, they may be surprised at the change.  Our goal at Pope is that every teacher, regardless of teaching style, is responsive to the individual needs of all students.

If you have any questions about how we do student placement here at Pope, please don’t hesitate to call, email, or stop by and talk with me.

Sincerely,

Krista Bates