State Waives District’s Fine Over Class Size

The state will reimburse the Palmdale School District for a $106,000 fine levied after it was discovered the district violated class size regulations by having one too many students in a first-grade class.

The California Department of Education granted the reprieve Friday. The fine was deducted from the 15,600-student district’s spring disbursement and will be returned in a payment due in February.

The district’s routine enrollment report last spring showed that Joshua Hills Elementary School had a first-grade class with 33 pupils, one more than allowed by the state. The amount of the fine was based on an analysis of enrollments throughout the district, which found that 25 primary grade classrooms had more than the recommended 30 students.

State officials said it’s not unusual for such fines to be imposed and then waived if districts can show that the violation was unavoidable, said Nina Johnson, a field representative for the state education department.

During the past two years about 200 school districts have been fined for having too many students in classrooms and 80 or so asked for waivers. Johnson said she knew of only one waiver request that was turned down and said that decision was made because the district failed to supply enough information.

Nancy Smith, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, said the district now tracks the enrollment in its 16 schools with a computer to prevent a repeat of the error.