Teachers Press Issue of Crowded Classes : Santa Paula: An unresolved contract dispute resurfaces. School district officials say a 33-student limit is too costly.

Santa Paula Elementary School District officials are violating an expired teachers’ contract that limits class size to 33 students, the union president said.

Thirty-eight classrooms in the district are overcrowded, said Mike Weimer of the Santa Paula Federation of Teachers. A union member gave school trustees a resolution at their Jan. 23 meeting, describing teacher dissatisfaction with class size.

“It’s the principle here,” said Weimer, who teaches a science class of 34 students at Isbell Middle School. “Ten or 15 years ago, we started a gradual process of cutting class size.”

Randall C. Chase, assistant superintendent of business services, agreed that 19 classrooms for grades kindergarten through 3 violate the expired contract, but the district’s superintendent said the district can’t afford to hire more teachers. There is no breakdown for class size in grades 4 through 8, Chase said.

To adhere to the expired contract, Supt. David G. Philips said, nine teachers would have to be hired for a total cost of nearly $300,000 a year. “People would like small classes, but who could afford them?” Philips said.

“We have among the lowest (class size) in the county,” he said, citing an average of 29.7 students in grades kindergarten through 3. In grades 4 through 8, there are about 30.2 students per teacher, he said.

Two years ago, in the most recent comparison available, Santa Paula had the third-lowest class size in the county for grades kindergarten through 3, Philips said.

Under state law, a district’s kindergarten classes are limited to an average size of 31 students, and grades 1 through 3 are limited to an average class size of 30. School districts with more students must pay a penalty, which averages $2,500 to $3,000, said Nina Johnson of the state Department of Education.

School districts are also penalized if there is one kindergarten class with more than 33 students, or if there is a single classroom with more than 32 pupils in grades 1 through 3, Johnson said.

For many districts, accepting the penalty is cheaper than hiring extra teachers, she said.

Teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, 1990, because of an impasse over class size, Weimer said.

In September, the teachers union rejected the 1991-92 contract, which would have increased average class size by one to two students for that year, district officials said.

Under the old contract, class size is limited to 33 students in grades 6 through 8, and 30 students in grades kindergarten through 5. Most of the classes exceeding contractual limits are in grades kindergarten through 5, Weimer said.

Dave Dike, a fifth-grade teacher at Thelma Bedell School, where personalized instruction is stressed, said he has no time to teach individual students in a class of 33.

“I’ve done more whole-class instruction than I ever have,” Dike said. Instead of teaching, “you end up with crowd control. I have kids waiting in line to get instruction from me.”

Teaching younger students is especially trying, said a kindergarten teacher who wished to remain anonymous.

“It’s outrageously frustrating,” said the woman, who taught 32 kindergartners earlier this year. “Frustrating for kids, frustrating for teachers, frustrating for everybody.”

To teach more effectively, the kindergarten teacher opted to stagger the number of children throughout the day. For example, 15 students come to class early and leave early, and 15 more join them later and leave later.

“They have more space, they sit still longer, they’re calmer. They’re getting the attention they need at the level they need,” she said. “Now I feel like somebody might be learning.”

A small class is important, teachers said, because it allows them to spend more time with individual students. “I could run a better classroom with fewer students,” Dike said.

Teachers said large classes force them to neglect individual students and place pupils in groups.

Bob Berg, an eighth-grade language arts teacher, said he misses the days when teachers could isolate unruly students in a corner of the classroom.

“Now, there’s no place,” he said.

But students said they don’t mind the time spent with their classmates in groups. “It’s easier to work together,” said 14-year-old Tamara Grossman.

Hiring more teachers would quickly resolve the issue, Weimer said, but school officials argued that it would be too expensive and impractical for the budget-strapped district.

Jeniece Buckley, principal of Isbell Middle School, where one class contains 34 students, said she would have to hire more teachers and restructure the entire eighth-grade class to comply with the contract.

Last June, district trustees approved a $13.1-million budget for this year, after eliminating a total of 11 full-time and two part-time teaching positions districtwide.