From the first evening Lisa Sanning visited Jefferson City's East Elementary School last August, she knew her daughter's fifth-grade class was too crowded.
"The night of the Welcome Back orientation, we realized there were 27 kids in the class," Sanning said. "I was concerned that night about it."
She wrote a letter to Jefferson City Public Schools Superintendent Brian Mitchell citing the challenges low-income children face when they have to cope with crowded conditions, but she says she didn't get a satisfactory response.
"I received a three-sentence letter saying they were looking into the situation and would make a decision in the next couple of weeks," she said.
Mitchell did not return calls to the News Tribune about the exchange between Sanning and him.
Sanning said life got busy and she didn't revisit the situation until weeks later. By that point, life in her daughter's fifth-grade class wasn't going well.
"When it is so crowded, the kids can't get around without bumping into one another, which sometimes leads to arguments," she said.
Other disruptions at the school were noticeable.
Learning was frequently disrupted by other students' outbursts. Sanning said the loss of three faculty members - a third-grade teacher, a counselor and a librarian - from the previous year may be emblematic of faculty retention issues. And while Sanning really likes her daughter's teacher - a former Marine who stresses discipline and is a great role model for the kids - he was on leave for weeks with a serious illness, which unfortunately led to a series of substitutes through the classroom.
By Christmas break, her daughter no longer wanted to attend school, she said.
"It makes me sad, because until this point, we were having a great experience with East," she said. "The staff is great, and so dedicated."
A week ago, Sanning - accompanied by two East School teachers and a dozen supporters - attended the Jefferson City Board of Education's monthly meeting in hopes of persuading leaders to take their concerns about overcrowding seriously.
Because, until that point, Sanning said her group felt ignored.
Both Sanning and at-risk teacher Delora Scaggs said numerous pleas to meet with school district leaders went unheeded for months.
After sending their initial correspondence, Scaggs said she and her husband waited two weeks before they initiated contact with Mitchell, who declined to meet with them, saying they didn't follow the chain of command. Scaggs said it took an additional six weeks for the board to "respectfully decline" to meet with them on this issue.
Although Scaggs chats with Principal Julie Martin regularly at school, on Jan. 6 she and her husband, Jason Scaggs, met with Martin in their capacity as parents of a fifth-grade boy. At that meeting, Martin indicated central office administrators had said no to the idea of a second mobile classroom.
Martin "was opposed, initially, to using the existing mobile unit to help with overcrowding ... so she met with parents who voiced concerns and tried to do the best with the situation," Scaggs noted.
Martin did not return calls to the News Tribune for this story.
Scaggs and her husband met with Kathy Foster, assistant superintendent of elementary education, on Jan. 9, after waiting 8 1/2 weeks to do so.
"She said the same thing. ... the "No' came from Mitchell as far as the mobile unit was concerned," Scaggs said.
Sanning said Foster did not return her phone call until she threatened to bring her concerns before the Board of Education. A reference librarian who serves on the PTO, Sanning said she's not typically confrontational in her dealings with others, but felt it was important to advocate for her child and the others at East.
In that phone conversation, Sanning said Foster told her bubbles of higher-than-normal enrollment happen from time to time around the district. (Foster did not return a call by deadline Friday.)
"That does not make me feel better," Sanning told Foster, adding she would rather see the district have a contingency plan when that happens.
Sanning said her household has the financial resources to make up for what her daughter isn't learning at school this year.
"We can provide the extra tutoring, but other parents don't have that luxury. School is what these kids have to rely on for a good future," Sanning said. "It seems like these kids have so many strikes against them already.
"Do they ignore East because of the demographics?" Sanning wondered. "Because people are so busy trying to live, working two and three jobs, they don't have time to worry about what's going on at school.
"Five or six months ago, we could have done something to fix this problem. Instead, (administrators) just tried to placate and stonewall us. Perhaps the hope was we'd give up and go away. But we won't."
Economically speaking, East Elementary School is home to some of the district's most-impoverished families.
The school's boundaries cross Highway 50/63 to take in a swath of public housing along Elm Street. Nearly nine out of every 10 students in the building are eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches.
East also has the highest proportion of black students - 48 percent - in the district.
And by many measurable statistics, East Elementary School is overcrowded.
Each of its two fifth-grade sections have 29 students. (Lawson Elementary has a similar problem with 28 and 29 students in two sections.)
Twenty-two students is typical for the rest of the district. Thorpe Gordon Elementary School, which is comparable to East in terms of student size and composition, has fifth-grade class sizes of 16, 16 and 13. South Elementary School has two fifth-grade sections with 20 and 21 students each.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has established a "standard" of 30 students maximum, with a "desirable standard" of 22 students.
The fifth-graders aren't the only crowded kids at East. Kindergartners - with three class sections of 25, 26 and 26 students - are also squeezed in. Twenty-one kindergartners is the average class size across the district.
Callaway Hills Elementary - where the percentage of black students is too negligible for DESE to count - has kindergarten class sizes of 13, 13 and 14.
From a square-footage perspective, East is also small.
With 38,700 square feet of space, East is the smallest elementary in the district.
East's classrooms - which average 660 square feet in size - are the second-smallest in the district. According to a document on DESE's website, the recommended size for a general elementary classroom is 900 square feet for 25 students.
East also has fairly small kindergarten classrooms, at an average of 870 square feet. The state recommendation for kindergarten is 1,200 square feet.
East also has the smallest gymnasium (2,040 square feet), the third-smallest cafeteria (1,260 square feet) and the third-smallest kitchen (505 square feet). It has the second-smallest stage, after Pioneer Trail, which doesn't have one.
East's site is also particularly cramped with fewer than 4.79 acres. The site has no green space for student outdoor recreation. Only Thorpe Gordon is smaller with 4 acres.
Because space is at such a premium, many staff have been pushed into areas that were never meant to be used as offices, including storage closets and a mechanical room where visually impaired students do their work right beside electrical panels.
Pam Murray, who is campaigning for a seat on the board, told the board that Jefferson City Fire Department inspectors cited the school on Aug. 26. This inspector's report noted the "office needs to be moved out of mechanical room," Murray said.
East currently has no empty classrooms.
Therein lies much of the problem.
Jason Hoffman, JCPS's chief financial officer, said last spring district leaders attempted to ameliorate concerns about East School's performance by adding more personnel, including an at-risk teacher (Scaggs) and a full-time social worker who is dedicated to East only.
The school also has more Reading Recovery teachers than other buildings.
When the high enrollment numbers were noticed, two aides were also offered to the building. One was hired.
But adding all those bodies to an already overcrowded setting only complicated matters, which Hoffman described as "frustrating."
Both Hoffman and the district's spokesperson, Amy Berendzen, said classroom size is something the district monitors daily. But responding to those changes - which can be quite volatile as students move in and out - is a challenge, they said.
"In August, we thought the numbers were manageable. But anyone can enroll at any time," Berendzen said.
At the moment, district leaders are actively looking at options to improve East's circumstances. None of those options include adding more space. However, administrators and leaders are amenable to providing two more teachers, if the space can be found for them.
Board President Dennis Nickelson suggested it may be possible for the school's music or art room to be converted to a fifth-grade classroom. (The art or music teacher would move from room to room by cart.)
"That makes a lot of sense," he suggested.
"I've gotten good information the building is working on it. The teachers, themselves, are working on it. There are several viable solutions," he said.
Nickelson added the board wants to help.
"The district will provide whatever resources they ask for. ... we can provide another teacher easily," he said.
Other ideas in the works include converting the teachers' L-shaped lounge into a classroom or the two-room Reading Recovery trailer into classrooms. (It's not clear yet where the Reading Recovery program would relocate.)
Hoffman said a final plan hadn't yet been decided.
According to school administrators, installing a second trailer would cost approximately $97,000 for a new one and $53,000 for a used one. (A used one may be available in Columbia, Hoffman noted.)
Scaggs said she feels it is important not only to add more teachers, but also to create more space. A mobile unit might fit next to the existing one on the property, or perhaps on the playground, she said.
Sanning said: "If you'd asked me a year ago if I wanted my daughter in a trailer, I would have thought you were crazy. But now I'm saying, "Yes!'"
They both found it galling that instead of addressing overcrowding last fall, district leaders instead asked the fire department to reassess East's classroom occupancy load ratings.
In a letter, Scaggs pointed out a few parents last fall began to voice concerns that actual occupancy rates were exceeding posted occupancy loads on a daily basis. (Occupancy loads vary from room to room.)
"... The teachers, not the parents, were notified that their class occupancy loads would be changed to allow for their maximum occupancy," Scaggs wrote. "Of course they were told that those numbers would not ever in any way be allowed to reach those levels, but needed to be adjusted to reflect the "true' occupancy capacity. No other school in the district was adjusted."
A classroom she taught in for 16 years at the school always had an occupancy load rating of 30 until it was raised to 40 recently. Her son's classroom was revised from 30 to 37 people, she said.
She noted it isn't unusual for a room to have 32 or 33 people working there daily.
Hoffman said, after the October Board of Education meeting, an East staffer claimed the district was violating occupancy loads.
"We asked the fire department to evaluate the building ... because we didn't think it was correct," Hoffman said. "We have updated our occupancy loads."
And both women are galled school board members were never receptive to meeting with them, forcing them to make their concerns public Monday.
A letter dated Dec. 18 signed by Nickelson, informed Scaggs, "it is our understanding that building administration has an option to reduce the number of students in each fifth grade class for much of the day while utilizing the existing space we currently have."
Nickelson continued: "We encourage you to work with (Martin) to deploy those plans to help support our students and staff. As such, the Board of Education respectfully declines the invitation to meet with you regarding class sizes at East Elementary."
After that letter, Scaggs requested a slot on the board's Jan. 12 meeting agenda. She was denied.
A Jan. 6 letter from Nickelson stated: "The board respectfully declines to place you on the board agenda. The assignment of staff is a building administrative function and we encourage you to work with your building principal to help best meet the education needs of our students."
In a phone conversation on Thursday evening, Nickelson noted it's not uncommon for class sizes to grow beyond the desirable standard. His Dec. 18 letter noted the board is concerned when class sizes reach 28 and 29 students.
"Adding mobile classrooms each time numbers such as those appear in schools across the district, including East, is not feasible," he continued in that letter.
The two women were also appalled when Doug Whitehead, a board member, approached them after last Monday's meeting. Sanning said she thought he was going to express concern, but instead chastised them for summoning the media and "making the board look like jackasses..."
"It was quite disturbing, honestly," Sanning said in a phone interview. "I realized he's blaming us for their lack of action and the turmoil in the district. But we have every right to come and air our concerns."
Whitehead felt his remarks were misconstrued. He said he wanted to communicate he was sorry the situation had gotten to this point and he wasn't able to finish his thoughts succinctly before the conversation concluded.
He said the board "supports teachers" and "loves all of the kids in the district." To be painted as uncaring is inaccurate, he said.
He said the women's "advocacy had turned into anger," which has "made the community think we don't care."
"It was a tough night for everyone," he said.
Scaggs and her husband said they want to work with administrators to resolve the problem.
"We want what is right, fair and reasonable for the kids. They deserve to have an adequate learning environment," Delora Scaggs said.
Jason Scaggs added: "We want the community to come together and say, "We've got a problem. What are our options? And how quickly can we get it done?'"
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