The number of oversize classes in elementary and middle schools is down for the second year in a row, but that welcome news is offset by a sharp rise in the city’s high school numbers, according to the union’s annual class-size survey.

Image

This year, on the 10th day of school, there were 1,145 high school classrooms with more students than the contractual limit, up from 803 last year. That increase pushed the total number of oversize classes to 2,525, up from 2,340 last year.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew called on the Department of Education to address the issue promptly. “Students deserve to learn and teachers to teach in classes that provide a more optimal learning environment,” he said.

Under the expedited grievance procedure for class size in the union contract, the Department of Education had 10 days from the first day of school to remedy class-size problems. The union filed grievances for the 465 schools that still had class sizes over contractual limits on Sept. 22.

Benjamin Cardozo HS, one of the Queens high schools chronically plagued by overcrowding, saw the number of its oversize classes rise from 82 last year to 148 this year.

Chapter Leader Dino Sferrazza, called the situation “tragic.” He described classes of more than 43 students, kids with no desks, custodians bringing up folding chairs and students who will be uprooted and transferred to other classes weeks into the school year.

“The problem has persisted for the 13 years I’ve been chapter leader and even before that,” Sferrazza said. “The only ones to pay the consequences are the kids and the teachers.”

He spoke of “lots of finger pointing” but no money to hire more teachers. “We could deal with the overcrowding with more staff,” he said. “Instead we’re under pressure to cut staff.”

According to the most recent calculation by the nonprofit Alliance for Quality Education, New York State owes Cardozo HS almost $5.6 million in state education aid as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court case.

Forest Hills HS Chapter Leader Adam Bergstein called the situation at his perennially overcrowded school, now at 200 percent of capacity, “brutal,” with as many as 38 to 50 students in a class. Forest Hills HS had a spike in oversize classes from 82 last year to 210 this year.

“For five years, we’ve had four to five dozen classes that remained oversize for the entire school year,” he said.

Bergstein estimated that 12 to 18 teachers need to be hired at his school to solve the problem. “Instead teachers are offered an extra paid period to fill the shortage,” he said.

Forest Hills HS is owed $5.8 million in education funding from the state.

Jessica Peterson, the chapter leader at Tottenville HS, cited lack of scheduling flexibility for more than tripling the number of oversize classes, from 23 to 80, at her school. The school went to a single session this year after years of multiple sessions.

“Multi-sessions provided more flexibility because more classrooms were available to handle the needs of a school with 4,200 students,” Peterson said.

The number of oversize classes in elementary and middle schools on the 10th day of school dropped from 1,537 last year to 1,380 this year.