MONROE — As the weeks progress, members of the School District of Monroe’s Board of Education will vote on a various issue that may shape the district’s future.

Among the issues being discussed by the board is the move from eight kindergarten sections in the district to seven.

District Administrator Rick Waski addressed the board at the April 12 meeting and asked members to make a decision regarding kindergarten sections April 26.

Currently, the district has eight kindergarten sections in it three elementary schools. Parkside and Northside each have three sections, while Abraham Lincoln has just two.

At eight sections, kindergarten classes in the district average 16 students per teacher. At seven sections, the student to teacher ratio would increase to 18.2 to one.

“The reality is this: when we were at 2,700, 2,800 students, we had eight sections,” Waski said. “We’re at 2,200 students now. That’s 600 less, and yet we’re at the same number of sections. And there’s a cost to doing that.”

Waski added that it will likely take several board of education meetings, which take place the second and fourth Monday of each month, to finish the greater question of elementary school configuration throughout the district.

“The reason we would like the board to make a decision on seven sections for kindergarten is quite simple: we need to start planning,” Waski said. “… we do want the board to make a decision April 26 so that we can start planning who we would move and how we would move them. I think in the grand scheme of things, we might be becoming a seven section elementary district where we move to eight sections when we have a large class rather than an eight section district and we move to seven when we have a small class.”

A change from eight kindergarten sections to seven would call for additional staff movement and organizational planning, so an early decision would allow the board to continue elementary facilities discussions before the 2021/22 school year.

Waski said that, though the board will be asked to make a decision regarding the number of sections for kindergarten April 26, discussions surrounding elementary class sections and facilities will continue in the weeks to come.

“This will be part of a fairly disciplined long-term conversation that we’re going to discuss,” he said.