Part 2: This is the second article in a series profiling schools that would be affected by a Kalispell Public Schools elementary bond request. Ballots will be mailed out today and are due Oct. 4.

Imagine taking 650 kindergarten through fifth-graders through a fire drill. Try organizing assemblies for that many students. Imagine what drop-off and pickup must look like in the parking lot.

Now figure out how to coordinate lunch and recess for third-graders alone — there are 120 of them — in a lunchroom that seats 100. A caveat in planning is that one of the third-grade classes is super-sized with 38 students and must have two adults present at all times in music, P.E., recess and lunch.

“This class has to go to recess first while the rest of the third-graders eat and then they swap,” Edgerton Elementary Principal Merisa Murray said. “So then you’re expecting third-graders to remember to come off the playground to eat their lunch because the whole grade level can’t physically fit in our lunchroom.”

This might be a scheduling nightmare to the average person ­— but it’s reality for Edgerton Elementary staff during another overcrowded school year.

The school is over capacity by an estimated 109 students. Since Edgerton is the largest elementary-school building in the district, it bears the brunt of overcrowding in Kalispell Public Schools.

Of the 109 students, roughly 80 are bused in from the district’s other smaller elementary buildings.

To deal with the overflow of students Edgerton is one of Kalispell’s five elementary buildings that would benefit from a $25,282,000 elementary district bond issue.

If voters approve the funding request, multipurpose and flexible learning spaces will be built at Edgerton, including over the existing school library, and deferred maintenance addressed.

Besides scheduling, safety is a big concern at Edgerton.

Because of the number of students, a new evacuation site had to be selected, Murray said.

“Same with fire drill — we’ve had to meet with the fire chief to get a new evacuation plan for 650 kids in and out of the building,” Murray said.

Her time is increasingly dedicated to scheduling.

“A significant amount of time I spend coordinating and scheduling and problem-solving — an extra body there, an extra body there — whereas, instead, I could be walking in classrooms being with kids, being with teachers and being an instructional leader,” Murray said.

She commended her teaching and paraprofessional staff for being flexible when conflicts arise in schedules.

“I will say kudos to my teachers for being so flexible,” Murray said. “The first week of school lunch did not work. I had to redo the entire lunch schedule and tell teachers the second week of school, ‘OK you have a new lunch schedule Let’s try it, but that’s just how we’ve had to roll with it.’”

And teachers have had to “roll with it.” Overcrowding has been an issue for several years at the school that was built in 1987.

Four new classrooms were added at Edgerton and Peterson schools as a short-term solution to overcrowding in 2013. In the blink of an eye they were full.

The other short-term solution was creating super-sized classrooms taught by two teachers, which lowered the student-to-teacher ratio and kept the school within state accreditation standards. Hedges and Peterson elementary schools also have super classrooms.

State accreditation standards limit class sizes to 28 per teacher in third and fourth grades. In kindergarten through second grade, class size is limited to 20 students.

Five years ago, Edgerton teachers Suzanne Elliot and Shelly Kennedy volunteered to work together as co-teachers of a “super” kindergarten classroom.

Now, Elliot and Kennedy teach third grade. Their classroom is located in the 2013 addition. It was built with a super classroom in mind, yet it is only slightly larger than an average classroom although there are double the students. Since last year, the super classroom has grown in size from 31 to 38 students.

Being a teacher in such a classroom requires excellent organization and communication skills. The bigger the class, the bigger the challenge, Kennedy said.

“Transitions take a lot longer. Grading papers takes a lot longer; you know just giving individual feedback to each child. Everything takes longer,” Elliot said.

Murray pointed to the transition time in Elliot and Kennedy’s classroom where students formed a line to go down the stairs to another part of the building on Sept. 13.

“You can’t see the front and back of the line, so one teacher stands behind and one teacher stands ahead,” Murray said.

Despite the super-sized classroom, Murray said it provides a smaller student-to-teacher ratio as opposed to one teacher with 28 students, which also is occurring at Edgerton.

Kennedy added: “There’s two teachers. The kids get more contact time with us. And sometimes one of us makes a connection with a certain kid and one of us makes the connection with a different kid so it’s really nice to have two teachers, two different personalities.”

But this year, 38 students is a tipping point even for two seasoned “super” teachers.

If the bond request passes, Elliot and Kennedy hope the co-teaching model remains because there are many positives, but it should stay in the 30- to 32-student range, which would be possible if Edgerton is relieved of overcrowding. Elliot said it’s an effective teaching strategy to have two teachers available to students.

“The kids and the parents like it. Personally we haven’t had any negative feedback, but we really build it as a sense of community,” Elliot said.

Murray said the super classrooms work because of the teachers.

“These guys are phenomenal. There can be something said for a co-teaching model if it’s the right set of teachers,” Murray said.

If the bond request passes, more students will be able to attend their neighborhood schools and multipurpose and flexible learning spaces will be built at Edgerton, including over the existing school library.

“Ten years ago it was perfect — like around 520 kids. Classes could singly go to P.E. and lunch,” Murray said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.