Smaller class sizes are needed

I have voted no on the levy request for the first time in 55 years. I taught in Seattle Public Schools for 25 years [“Seattle schools: Why so costly?,” page one, Feb. 8]. I truly believe the board has not done their homework.

Most particularly the plan to make an elementary school 650 students. My God!

These children need fewer bodies around them in the school, in the classroom, in the playground, in the cafeteria. They will not thrive in the anthill the district is planning!

And don’t kid me. Instead of making classes smaller so each kid gets attention, the district will count in the nurse (part-time, of course), the librarian, the principal and the vice principal — maybe even the custodian and head secretary in the “teacher/student” ratio negotiated in the teachers’ contract.

This isn’t education. It’s institutionalization.

I’m deeply disappointed.

--Syrene Forsman, Seattle