School Districts in a Big Hurry to Get Small

School administrator Barbara Winars breaks out her calculator and begins to punch in seven-digit dollar figures. The hectic numbers-crunching that has filled her life for the past few weeks is a complex mathematical nightmare, but also, she knows, the start of a dream come true: limiting class sizes in lower grades to 20 students.

“It’s a massive undertaking,” said Winars, the Westminster district’s assistant superintendent. “But it’s a challenge and opportunity we would not pass up for anything.”

After a state bill was signed last week offering millions of dollars to elementary schools that slash class sizes by February, the Westminster School District and others in Orange County are scrambling to carve out classroom space and hire teachers to implement the plan this year.

A Feb. 16 deadline looms over school districts trying to secure a share of a $971-million state pot. If a district cuts classes to a maximum of 20 students per teacher by that date in the first and second grades, it will receive $650 per pupil. When work on those grades is completed, districts can do the same for kindergarten and third-grade classes.

School officials do not believe all the money will be accessed this year.

Since the Westminster school board approved the district’s reduction plan two weeks ago, administrators have been poring over hundreds of teacher applications, working long into the night to prepare budgets and filing unprecedented orders for portable classrooms.

“We keep massaging and playing with the numbers, double-checking to make sure we’re planning well,” said Hodge Hill, principal of Finley Elementary School in Westminster. “It’s been hectic. . . . The timeline is tight but it’s what we were dealt and we will do the best with what we have.”

School principals are cutting summer vacations short and interviewing teachers on weekends.

In Irvine, El Camino Real Elementary employees were sweating inside their unventilated building last week as they hustled to subdivide classrooms into more, smaller rooms in time for the start of classes on Wednesday. Air-conditioning at the school, which is on a year-round schedule, won’t be turned on until Monday.

Teachers applying for an unexpectedly large number of job openings are lining up to elbow their way into the best school districts first. Westminster school officials say they’ve been fielding countless inquiries from seasoned instructors and others with no teaching experience.

“Our [phone] lines are pretty much jammed day in and day out,” said Deborah Coleman, the Westminster personnel administrator.

The race for resources intensified last week when Irvine Unified announced that it will open three schools Wednesday with all first-grade classes at 20 students each. Irvine’s actions added pressure for other districts competing for the same limited number of teachers.

The demand for portable classrooms has also soared.

School officials have estimated that about 11,000 new portable classrooms will be needed statewide for all school districts to implement class-reduction plans this school year. Experts in the trailer industry say they produce 6,600 annually.

“Districts have got to order buildings now if they want to make it by February,” said Mike Hemming, president of Perris-based Aurora Modular Industries, the second-largest manufacturer of portable classrooms in the state. “We still have the capacity to produce, but we’re already booked through September.”

Hemming said he doubts the state’s school districts will be ready to buy 11,000 portables this year. More often than not, he added, school administrators underestimate the time and work involved in installing a portable classroom.

“Unfortunately, its’s a frequent occurrence,” Hemming said. “The [portable classroom] sites sometimes have to be graded or have the utility hookups ready before we arrive. Oftentimes, we ship our buildings to the sites and they’re not ready.”

Another concern is the shortage of teachers.

Educators predict that about 20,000 new teachers will be needed by September. The state fully certified only 5,000 last year.

“This is certainly good legislation, but when you make a [sweeping] move like this, it makes it very difficult to achieve,” said Michael Parker, dean of the School of Education at Cal State Fullerton.

Another bill passed by the Legislature two weeks ago, eases the requirements for teachers to get credentialed. Under the new law, school districts can set up internships so that college graduates can immediately teach and simultaneously receive the training needed to become credentialed. Gov. Wilson is expected to sign the bill this week.

Some school districts welcome the idea, but most administrators said they are fishing for top-quality teachers, even if it means hiring out of state.

“The pool of teachers is going to dry up pretty quickly,” said Jim Brown, dean of Chapman University’s School of Education.

Irvine Unified officials said they have seen about 200 more applications this summer than in past years. The call for instructors apparently is attracting former teachers back into classrooms.

“Historically, about half the people who go into teaching drop out after five years,” Brown said. “Many go into other professions and/or have gone back into the home either to be homemakers or work out of their homes. We may see more of them return to teaching. I’m not suggesting that would be enough to cover the need.”

Since May, Westminster school administrators have been booking daily interviews from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. without stopping. They screen an average of 12 to 15 applicants a day. There are no breaks unless someone cancels an appointment.

Amid the hiring frenzy, top-rate teachers also are being lured into some of the county’s wealthier and more notable districts.

Anna Joslin, who transferred from Saddleback to Irvine Unified, said she made the switch for a “dream” offer. The 28-year-old first-grade teacher got a raise, will cut her commute in half and teach a class of only 19 students.

“I’ve been teaching for six years and this is a dream come true,” Joslin said.