Bluemagic, hmmm...I have never asked about the number of students per class. I will be sure to question the principal about that. I am assuming that they are not changing class sizes much (or at least not decreasing class sizes, anyway), as they have not used the "smaller class size" claim as a selling point in discussions about the new schedule.
Yes--I believe they are short on staff and using this schedule change as an excuse to eliminate that higher class. They have also mentioned that, in past years, many students have qualified for the 6th Grade Challenge Classes (through grades and standardized test scores), only to perform poorly in the Challenge Class setting. My thought is that their qualification process must be too lenient or ineffective then, as my HG DS13 had no trouble at all with the transition to 6th grade Challenge. The students who struggled were the ones who really did not have the need for Challenge in the first place. I think our school simply doesn't have the teachers or the time in the daily schedule to fit in our Challenge Classes. They seem to be choosing, instead, to serve the majority.
