Irvine Could Be First to Trim Class Sizes

Swiftly taking advantage of new state grants intended to decrease class sizes, the Irvine Unified School District may become the first in the state to launch a plan limiting first-grade classrooms to 20 students when its schools begin opening next week.

“I have not heard of any school district that has schools ready to go next week,” said Dan Edward, the governor’s spokesman in the education office. “I would say with certainty that they are among the first to get this into action. . . . That’s very quick.”

School employees have been scrambling to create new classrooms since trustees voted Tuesday to put the $1.6-million plan--which will limit every first-grade class in Irvine’s 21 elementary schools to 20 students--in place in time for Wednesday’s opening of the district’s three year-round elementary schools.

School officials are sliding in classroom dividers and clearing out space, and administrators are rushing to hire the 33 additional teachers that will be needed, school officials said.

“We have been preparing for this eventuality,” said Irvine Supt. Dennis Smith. “But this really is a situation where we’ll be working round the clock.”

Most of the district’s schools will not reopen until September.

At year-round El Camino Elementary School, two classrooms will be created by installing movable walls to divide three large classrooms into five smaller ones.

Because those new classrooms will be under construction when school starts, Principal Jeff Herdman said, some first-grade teachers will have to share space. But the student-teacher ratio of 20-1 will be met, he said.

Science laboratories, which are vacant during some parts of the day, are being converted into temporary teaching rooms at El Camino, and open areas such as the school assembly stage will be furnished with tables and chairs to create instructional space.

Although the transition will be bumpy, educators said, it is a small trade-off for the chance to shrink classes from their usual 32 students.

“I’m thrilled,” said Bruce Terry, principal of Vista Verde Elementary school, which also opens Wednesday. “The notion of having 20 students in the classroom is wonderful. I’ve been apologizing for years for having 32. We won’t have to do that anymore.”

Irvine school administrators said they began developing class reduction plans in May, when Gov. Pete Wilson proposed offering money to schools that would decrease class sizes to 20.

The state budget he signed Monday includes $971 million in funding incentives for schools that reduce class sizes in kindergarten to third grade by February.

Irvine officials said they expect the state grant to cover about 70%, or $1.1 million, of the total cost of creating enough new classes to handle the surplus students that will result from the new limits.

The district has the good fortune of having adequate space to expand, which is not the case for many school districts trying to draft class-size reduction plans.