Teacher patty paulson's 23 kindergartners bound and pirouette through the classroom door, scrambling for standing-room-only spots on the rust-colored carpet. Music class in Meridian, Idaho's, Us-tick Elementary School is in a storage closet. Where pails and lunch tables were once stacked, 5- and 6-year-olds stomp their sneakers to taped banjo music, trying not to trample each other. Another kindergarten class in the suburban Boise school is camping out in what used to be the faculty lounge. Ustick is jammed with more students than it was designed to hold—140 extras, 40 of them surplus kindergartners. Like the snarl of new students at many of the nation's school districts, Idaho's kid crunch is likely to get worse. Just last week Meridian taxpayers rejected a $27 million bond issue to build more schools. For teachers and kids, the news aggravated the claustrophobia. As Paulson attempts to count heads in her closet-room, a 5-year-old oifers assistance: "We got a new kid. He's right here." A cacophonous chorus follows: "New kid! New kid!"
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