UFT President Michael Mulgrew, joined by elected leaders, parents, and staff celebrated the work of IS 145 Queens principal Ivan Rodriguez in dramatically lowering class sizes for his sixth-grade students.

IS 145 has lowered class sizes for all 440 incoming 6th-graders to 23 students, down from 30-plus, and is working to do the same for 7th and 8th graders over the next three years.

Mr. Mulgrew said, “We know that our children deserve a better learning environment. And you get a better learning environment when you lower class sizes. We are now embarking on the next part of this journey of class sizes, which is trying to educate everyone about how to do this process, about how we have over 600 schools right now that have enough space to lower their class sizes for the entire school. And now starting this year is the first year that the Department of Education has sent specific money to schools to lower class sizes.”

IS 145 Principal Ivan Rodriguez worked with his local district office and with parents to make lower classes a reality, including hiring additional teachers and reprogramming the building to produce enough space in the nearly 1,500-student school to lower sixth-grade class sizes. 

Ivan Rodriguez, Principal of IS 145 Q: “It's all about providing children with what they're entitled to, not just from an instructional perspective, but also from a social and emotional perspective.”

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards: “What this school has accomplished - it's the blueprint for what the city should do....Twenty-three kids per teacher is amazing.  Getting that one-on-one attention, I wish I had more of that when I went to middle school and to Jamaica High School as well because it's really about ensuring that you can have that one-on-one intervention with students who may need a little bit more TLC.”

Governor Hochul signed a law in 2022 to reduce class sizes in all New York City classrooms by 2028. The legislation provided additional funds to reduce class sizes.

By September 2028, city classrooms can be no larger than 20 students in kindergarten through third grade, 23 students for grades 4-8, and 25 students for high school classes.

State Sen. Jessica Ramos: “It's fantastic. (Passing the class size law was) probably one of the proudest votes I've taken in the New York State Senate. My neighbors sent me there precisely to secure all of the Foundation Aid funding we needed for all of our schools. And I don't only care about District 30 because my children are District 30 students. I'm a District 30 graduate myself, and I've seen how over the last several decades this district has been welcoming to all sorts of children who are in desperate need of education. This is truly going to help bridge that gap and make sure that fewer and fewer children are able to go to school.”

State Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas: “When we're not investing in our schools, when we're not investing in our children, we are not investing in our future. And what we're doing here today is investing in our future. We know that smaller class sizes help the focus, the learning, the social-emotional skills, and the interpersonal interactions among our children in our school community.”

City Council Member Shekar Krishnan: “We make a compelling case this morning about the importance of smaller class sizes, giving students and teachers both the ability to focus their attention on their material, what they love learning, for children to get the specialized attention that they deeply need. That is crucial.”

Under the law, the New York City Department of Education is responsible for building more classroom seats in congested neighborhoods.

Maryln Rios, Speech Teacher at IS 145, and UFT Chapter Leader: "As a speech teacher, I see kids in a small group, which is very different from a classroom teacher. But what I see in my small groups of five is I see individual personalities.  When I go into the classrooms and provide in-class services, I see that my students are sometimes shyer, that they are sometimes distracted. I see how being in those large classrooms really affects them, and I truly believe that this smaller classroom mandate is just going to allow them to flourish.”

Mary Genova, Social Studies Teacher at IS 145 and member of the School Leadership Team: “I'm a social studies teacher, and in the past, I probably taught 140 children a day. This is a wonderful initiative to help the students. Also, I just want to say that I think social-emotional learning is a component that all the teachers put in their lesson plans. Children come in with not only worrying about their academics but come in with different environmental issues. And we're finally here to really put more effort into that.

William Hargrove, 8th grade English teacher at IS 145: “If you speak to any committed educator, you'll find they support reducing class sizes, and I do find that's somehow lost in this larger conversation. The studies show that reduced class sizes result in improvement in test scores and more satisfied students, teachers, and parents.  These smaller class sizes will facilitate a better understanding of each other, the class material, and how it all connects with our communities and the world at large. We're living through an acute mental health crisis right now, and this manifests itself in the classroom.”

Whitney Toussaint, public school parent and CEC 30 Co-President: “Our CEC in May passed the resolution supporting the class size working group recommendations and the law, and we're so thankful that Mr. Rodriguez and his school, and the local elected officials here, our borough president, our state representatives, who are also so officially District 30 parents, listen to us and heard what we were saying about our children needing these smaller class sizes to get the resources that they need. ”

Christina Hernandez, Special Education teacher at I.S 145Q: “Our school is extremely diverse in every sense of the word, but most importantly, we have diverse learners. And this smaller class size is really going to directly, positively impact our students who are English language learners, our students who are new to the country, our students who are performing significantly below grade level, and the ones most near and dear to my heart, our students with IEPs.”