Reduced Class Sizes on Agenda

After years of dreaming about smaller classes, Irvine school board members tonight will review a plan to reduce first-grade class sizes by one-third.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity,” said school board President Mary Ellen Hadley, a 13-year trustee of the Irvine Unified School District, who represents Orange County in the California School Boards Assn. “We are all amazed and excited about the opportunity to finally do something about class size.”

Irvine Unified, like school districts throughout California, is crafting a plan to take advantage of funding pledged by the state to lower class sizes in kindergarten through third grade to 20 students per teacher. In Irvine, the average class size is 30 students.

Irvine school district officials hope to put the new plan into effect at three year-round schools that begin the new school year next week. By the time all students return to school in September, Irvine will need 33 new teachers to accommodate lower first grade class sizes at the district’s 21 elementary schools.

The district will be required to contribute $400,000 of the $1.6-million cost of lowering first-grade class sizes, according to Supt. Dennis M. Smith. Irvine Unified expects to have 1,750 first-graders enrolled during the 1996-97 school year.

The biggest problems facing Irvine and other districts are a lack of classroom space and a shortage of credentialed teachers, Smith said.

The teacher shortage prompted the Legislature to ease the requirements for those with college degrees to become teachers. Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to sign the bill later this week.