The Atlanta school board has reversed its earlier decision to keep class sizes at or below state limits.
With no public discussion, the board voted 7-2 Thursday night to apply for state permission—or a waiver—to exceed the limits by up to five students.
Board members Nancy Meister and Cynthia Briscoe Brown voted against the waiver request.
Board members Courtney English, Byron Amos, Eshe Collins, Jason Esteves, Leslie Grant, Steven Lee and Matt Westmoreland voted for it.
The decision does not mean that class sizes will automatically increase, but does allow the board to use the larger class sizes in planning for next school year.
At its regular meeting earlier this month, the board had voted down the waiver request. At that time, Amos and Collins voted against the waiver. Lee was not present for that vote.
Current Atlanta Public Schools average class sizes by school range from 12 to 27, according to board documents, but some classes are significantly larger.
The waiver rejection comes after the board set smaller class sizes as a lower priority than teacher raises when approving the district's budget in April, also in a split vote. And it comes as district budget assumptions project record revenues for the coming school year.
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