Members of the Thomaston-Upson Board of Education joined school boards across the state in urging the General Assembly to postpone class size reduction requirements another year.

At a special meeting Tuesday, board members adopted a resolution which notes the economy is still suffering from a national recession and that state funding cuts have impacted local school systems.

If the class size rules are implemented, Superintendent Dr. Howard Hendley said, "It is likely that we will have to employ additional teaching staff to meet the more restrictive maximum class size requirements. This is especially disturbing given the current precarious economic environment in which we find ourselves."

To achieve smaller class size, school systems must build more classrooms and hire more teachers. As a result the Georgia School Board Association, which represents the state's more than 180 school systems, has encouraged systems to adopt a resolution asking the General Assembly to delay for one more year the class size reduction plan.

Also at last night's board meeting, members agreed to include teachers in the feasibility study process under way regarding realignment of the primary and elementary schools. The teachers from those schools honored this week as Teachers of Excellence will be invited to participate on the various committees.