Educators Praise State Plan to Reduce Class Sizes

Ventura County educators Wednesday praised a $771-million statewide plan to cut classroom crowding, while also saying they have not yet figured how they can afford to accept their share of the new money.

The compromise budget agreement by Gov. Pete Wilson and legislative leaders would provide millions of dollars locally to hire hundreds of new teachers to shrink classes to 20 students or fewer in grades one through three. Kindergarten can be included instead of third grade if districts prefer.

But school administrators said they do not have enough rooms for the new classes, cannot afford to build or rent new ones, and do not know where they would find the money to pay a portion of new teachers’ salaries not covered by the state plan.

Nor are there enough teachers or portable classrooms to go around--in Ventura County or statewide--especially considering the heightened demand created by the budget plan reached Wednesday, they said.

The state intends to spend $200 million to buy 5,000 portable classrooms, Senate budget analysts said. But Ventura County’s share of the portables, between 100 and 125, would fall far short of actual need, administrators said.

Consultants have informed districts that new portable classrooms, which cost about $75,000 each to install, could not be delivered until winter even if orders were received today, officials said.

“It’s a wonderful idea, and we don’t want to throw a wet blanket on it. It’s just a question of how can we implement it?” said Howard Hamilton, associate superintendent in Camarillo’s 14-school elementary district. “This plan would take 42 new classrooms, but we have only two extra right now.”

Libraries as well as computer and science labs might have to be converted to provide the extra space, he said. Camarillo voters have rejected bonds to build new schools in the fast-growing district four times in five years.

In addition, administrators say the state plan falls thousands of dollars short of the $40,000 to $45,000 it would cost to put a teacher into each newly created classroom, once salary and benefits are considered.

Under the deal, a school that can lower class size to 20 students per teacher would receive $650 per student. If a school can cut class size for only reading and math, the school would get $325 per student.

The state places the cost of smaller classes at $775 per student. Individual school districts would have to pay the $125 difference.

Still, local districts say they have begun considering a variety of alternatives to stretch existing space--including year-round schedules, split shifts, classroom partitions, team teaching and petitioning the Legislature so that districts can use the new money to place more teachers and aides in existing classrooms.

“If this plan is flexible enough, we might be able to provide an extra teacher in the same classroom,” said Jerry Dannenberg, assistant superintendent in the Ventura Unified School District. “There’s also consideration that we may need to put our schools on a year-round schedule, or a split schedule is an option.”

A second issue, he said, is a teacher shortage. “There’s just not enough teachers out there to meet the need.” In Ventura, the district might be able to recruit enough substitutes into permanent employment, but then there would be too few substitutes when teachers are sick, he said.

Administrators said a big concern is the push to cut class sizes quickly. The money would be available when school opens in September, and parents may anticipate smaller classes right away, but the districts probably would not be able to provide them, officials said.

“There are many pieces to this puzzle that have to be put together,” Oxnard Elementary School District Supt. Bernard Korenstein said. “But it’s a welcome challenge to solve this kind of a problem because it’s good for kids.

“The question is,” he said, “is there a way to do this? That’s the challenge we’ll tackle when we get back from our Fourth of July on Friday morning.”

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