WEST MILFORD Groups of parents of second grade Paradise Knolls students have been coming before the board of education since January to plead for a smaller teacher/student ratio. Following the unexpected mid-year retirement of teacher Daniel Matthews, the parents requested the two second grade classes be split into three, citing Matthews top scale pay as a way to finance two new, low scale teachers. Their children, the parents say, are miserable. Thirty seven percent of them require some sort of remediation and many of the ones that don’t are bored. The solution, they feel, is to reduce the current class sizes of 25 and 26 to 17. The problem, they claim, is the cumulative effect of large classes since kindergarten during the educational foundation years. Superintendent Glenn Kamp told the parents several weeks ago that the administration was not going to hire a third teacher and expressed confidence in the newly hired replacement. The parent group has continued to show up at board meetings to voice their concerns. They have nothing but praise for both past and present teachers, but are adament that the size of the classes are destructive. Now they are requesting classroom aides for the rest of the year and three sections next year. Kamp, along with Director of Education Bernice Colefield and the Education Committee will make a recommendation to the board as to how to proceed. Board President Midge Touw said she didn’t know yet what the administration would recommend but that regardless she was pleased to see the parents come before the board. “The board appreciates it when parents speak to us about their concerns,” she said. “It helps us to keep informed from their point of view. We want that.” Also at Paradise Knolls: The TREPS$ program, which was created and is run by Hayley Romano and Pamela deWaal will be holding a marketplace on Friday, March 10 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The program teaches simple business concept. The marketplace will feature the results of the program -- more than 40 tables of products and services developed and marketed by young entrepreneurs aged 9 - 12.