LOS ALAMITOS : Parents Ask Trustees to Reduce Class Size

Parents worried about large classes have asked the Los Alamitos school trustees to limit transfers from other districts.

“Students from within the district must have priority,” said David Fuller, a parent, during Monday’s meeting of the Los Alamitos Unified School District board.

Last month, parents from Hopkinson and other elementary schools complained that some fourth- and fifth-grade classes have as many as 36 students--”way above” the district’s average of 31 students per class.

“You must find a way to bring class size down this year,” said Cindy Howe, joining about a dozen parents who took turns grilling board members and the district staff on ways to ease overcrowding.

In the current school year, 1,452 students from other school districts have been admitted to Los Alamitos schools, records show.

Parents contend that crowding will be reduced if fewer inter-district transfers are accepted.

But school district officials said that class size is determined by the staffing level that the district sets at the start of the school year.

For example, officials said, it was decided that during the 1993-94 school year the staffing level will be one teacher per 31 students in the elementary grades. The ratio was 1 teacher to 28 students in middle school and 1 to 28.27 at Los Alamitos High School.

That has been achieved, according to Asst. Supt. David Hatton.

School Board President Keith Polakoff said that limiting transfers from other districts or removing transfer students who have already been admitted would be unfair and will cost the school district some money. That’s because the state funds each school based on average daily attendance.

Every student transfer brings additional income to the school district, Polakoff said.

He said that a citizens’ advisory panel that is formulating the school district’s long-term goals will look into the issue of overcrowding.

Supt. Michael S. Miller said that declining funding for public education is the reason why schools across the state are getting increasingly larger classes.

In a slide presentation, Miller said that California ranks No. 40 in the nation in the amount of money spent for each student. He said the state spends $4,569 per student while the national average is $5,686.

“If we don’t put up the money, class size will rise,” Miller said.

For example, he said that in 1975, when California was 18th in per-pupil expenditures nationally, there were 26 students per teacher at Hopkinson Elementary School. This school year, the ratio is 31 students per teacher.

To reduce class size by one student across all grade levels, Miller said the school district will have to hire eight teachers at a total cost of about $304,000 a year. The school district cannot afford that, he said.

The school district laid off several employees, cut programs and services to balance its 1993-94 budget of $30 million, Miller said. Reserves are estimated at $2 million.