Larger classes in Fort Mill schools? How about the schools? Board candidates debate.

Experience, vision, accountability — seven Fort Mill School Board candidates debated a host of topics Tuesday night. But none drew more interest than class size.

Six of seven candidates said keeping a low student-teacher ratio should be a priority. Chad Meyer went a different route. Meyer said increasing class size by two students could free up 10 percent of the money spent on teachers, which the district could use for increased pay or other incentives to bring in and keep the best teachers available.

“We can free up a lot of money that we can put back toward teachers,” Meyer said.

He argued he would rather his child learn in a slightly larger class with an exceptional teacher than a smaller class with an average one.

Current board member and candidate for re-election Pam Martin disagreed.

“You lose something when you let those classes get larger,” she said.

Candidate Scott Frattaroli, a former principal in the district, said he believes there is a big difference between classes of 20 and 25 students. Keeping smaller class sizes is important to administrators, teachers and parents, he said.

“Student teacher ratio is consistently at the top of everybody’s list,” Frattaroli said.

Kristy Spears said teachers would be her top priority in budgeting, and the district has a strong roster of teachers now without bumping up class size. She would look to put “every dollar we can find” toward them.

“Number one would be teachers, number two would be teachers and number three would be more teachers,” Spears said.

Don Elliott said he would work on the school board to find ways existing teachers could spend less time managing their rooms and more time instructing, which could lead to the better results associated with top teachers.

“We need to find ways to free up our teachers to do more teaching,” Elliott said.

Meyer argued that in a perfect world, small class sizes are great, but they also are expensive. He simply wants to evaluate how money is best spent and if a slight uptick in class size helps direct funding to better teachers, the district needs to look at it.

“Everybody else is moving to Fort Mill,” Meyer said. “Why wouldn’t great teachers?”

Candidates largely agreed on a host of items. All see municipal partnerships as important to handling student population growth. All want more foreign language study, and at younger grades. Ideas varied a little on how to plan for more and more students annually.

“Maybe look at increasing the size of our schools,” said Terrin Boddie.

Boddie said larger new schools mean fewer duplicate services as students fill them, rather than separate smaller schools. Martin said the idea isn’t new.

“We’ve already had to increase school sizes,” she said.

Spears, who graduated from the district when it had far fewer students, sees sport teams and other opportunities limited in how many students can participate per school. She sees value in keeping schools from growing too large.

“The larger those schools get, the more limited those opportunities are,” Spears said.

Incumbent Tom Audette said a school board member also has to realize how national and state policies impact everything from available funding to community growth. Keeping up with legislation is key to planning.

“These bills, we have to understand them and prepare for them,” Audette said.

Candidates stressed their desire to both serve district staff and keep them accountable. They each spoke of teamwork and the part they would play in making the district a top destination in the state and beyond.

“My priorities would be to align with the people who are doing this on a day-to-day basis,” Frattaroli said. “When you’re immersed in the school culture as a principal, the constant thought in your head is how can I support people, how can I support this process more?”

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 3:33 PM with the headline "Larger classes in Fort Mill schools? How about the schools? Board candidates debate.."