CALABASAS : Study Session on Class Sizes Slated

Concerned over large class sizes, the Las Virgenes Board of Education will hold a study session Tuesday in an effort to find solutions to the problem.

The session is designed to clear up confusion about class sizes, said Bob Fraisse, the district’s assistant superintendent of personnel.

“Numbers can be deceiving,” Fraisse said. “You can have some kids sitting in classes of 25, and other kids sitting in classes of 42. Some of our physical education classes are in the low 60s.”

The session will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the district office, 4111 N. Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas.

“We’re going to take a walk through all of the alternatives that are available to reduce class size,” Fraisse said.

The district, which adopted a fiscal 1994-95 budget that contains a deficit of $167,000, is unable to afford conventional solutions such as hiring more teachers, district officials say. The district, in an attempt to raise money, tried and failed twice in recent years to pass a parcel tax, which received 65% of the vote, but was unable to make the two-thirds majority required by law.

Judy Jordan, a member of the Board of Education, said that in her opinion, it’s unlikely that such a tax would pass this time around, either.

“We still would need the two-thirds,” she said. “And I don’t think people would go for it in anti-tax times and recessionary times.”

The average class size, according to district records, is 30 at elementary schools and 35 in the middle and high schools. Several high school classes, according to school records, average 40.

Nationally, according to figures provided by the National Education Assn., as of fall, 1992, the ratio of students to teachers was 24.1 to 1.

Presently, the district hires one teacher for every 31 students, Jordan said. It would cost $250,000 to reduce that figure to one teacher for every 30 students.

The district, because it has so many relatively wealthy families and because students generally score high on tests, receives less money per student from the federal government than most other schools in Southern California, according to district officials.

Fraisse said that during the session, he will present a variety of options to reduce class size. One is to increase the use of instructional aides, who are paid about $10 per hour, as opposed to teachers, who are paid about $30 per hour.

The district, he said, could also reduce the number of classes in certain subjects.