Walking into my fourth period class, a couple minutes before the bell, I notice the room filled to the brim with small chairs tightly crammed together and 30 students who have already taken their seats. I look for the only seat available, a tiny desk in the very back of class, and push my way towards it. This can not be real, I think to myself struggling to see the teacher behind a sea of 30 students.
Class size, APs, and course requirements were just a couple of the issues discussed at the Board of Education meeting I attended on Sept. 24, 2025.
The Piedmont Board of Education meets around every two weeks at 7 p.m. in the Piedmont City Council Chambers at City Hall. The five-member Board oversees both the elementary schools, middle school, and most importantly the high schools. Attending my first ever meeting, I was intrigued on what it would entail, who would speak, what would they say, and most importantly how much did it involve me.
One of the main issues discussed at this meeting was classroom size. Dr. Elise Marks, the AP Literature teacher and APT President, said it was the number one concern of teachers because class sizes are at a record high. The ratio of students to teachers is 28:1, and most teachers believe 26 is too much.
Piedmont prides itself on its great academics and small learning environment. The overcrowded classrooms not only affect the teachers — who find it harder to connect with the students, have more papers to grade, more emails to send, and more IEPs to deal with — but also affects the students. As a student at Piedmont High School who has seen and dealt with this issue first hand, I can confidently say the overpopulated classes affect all Piedmont high school students. It makes it harder to learn, connect with the teacher and feel comfortable with them, and makes the class less engaging, depriving students of a one on one experience with the teacher. Dr Marks spoke for APT, asking for caps on individual classes and for specific teachers, during the meeting. I found it interesting how involved and passionate Dr Marks was during the meeting, but wondered why other teachers did not attend to help support her claim.
Another prominent issue discussed during the meeting was course requirements and adding more APs, specifically for sophomores. The Board stated an interest in expanding AP offerings in the humanities. Assistant Superintendent Ariel Dolowich said he wanted to use a rubric to evaluate future course offerings to answer his question “how might we better align high school offerings with students’ interest and needs?”
Dr Marks stated during the meeting that adding newly AP classes will have the effect of diminishing classes like public speaking and creative writing (non-AP classes).
The board also discussed removing health, a freshman-required class, to help save money.
Introducing new APs and course requirements adds new expenses and negatively affects class size. In offering more APs and taking away basic course requirements, the school introduces too much variety and not enough teachers to teach these new classes. The more “singleton” AP classes added, the harder it is to balance class sizes.
Too many APs can be stressful, and for students who sit in the middle range for academic achievement, they may feel pressure to compete with other students, and need to “keep up”. This can open doors to a decreasing mental health, which will affect the school’s “Safety Scores” that Principal David Yoshihara reported during the meeting. From 2023 to 2025 the student safety scores improved 20% from 75% in 2023 to 95% in 2025.
I found it very interesting listening to the topics discussed in the school meeting and the Board’s process. I enjoyed viewing the infographics and presentations made by both Principal Yoshihara and Mr. Dolowich. I hope that the Board and school district will take more efforts to help the students rather than Piedmont’s reputation.
I want to be able to attend more meetings as it affects me and my peers and I also hope that more students will come to these meetings and voice their opinions. Attending this meeting made me realize how much the Board’s decisions affect the students at Piedmont and how much more PHS student voices need to be heard and taken into account.