CALABASAS : District OKs Cuts, Increased Class Sizes

The Las Virgenes Unified School District board this week approved a budget for next fiscal year that includes increased class sizes and cuts in funding for materials, some programs and school administration.

Although the spending plan adopted Tuesday night spares remedial reading and award-winning science programs originally slated for the ax, the average high school and middle school class size will increase from about 36 to nearly 40 students, said Assistant Supt. Don Zimring, who prepared the budget proposal.

“We are going to see more and more classes cross that line of 40 students,” Zimring said. “We are meeting our budget demands, but we have to remember that what we are doing is an insult to our students. This isn’t a matter of anyone being satisfied. No one is.”

The Board of Education, which prides itself on the overall academic excellence of the district’s students, also cut a transitional program for first-graders and an elementary school reading program. Funds for individual schools and district administration also were cut.

But the $450,000 in cuts approved for next fiscal year’s $40-million budget could have been more than doubled if the board had not tapped the district’s $2.3-million reserve fund for $670,000, Zimring said.