Schools Seek Means to Cut Class Sizes

Reducing class sizes remains a goal of Anaheim City School District officials, but the challenge is finding enough classroom space.

As Supt. Roberta Thompson put it, maintaining a ratio of 20 students per teacher in the first and second grades “is not only desirable, it’s critical to improving instruction.”

But, she added, “we have less facilities than we have kids.”

Maria-Elena Romero, assistant superintendent of business administration, estimates that the district would have to hire 84 instructors and bring in 70 portable classrooms to achieve the desired student/teacher ratio at all 22 campuses.

Even with an infusion of state funding, the district must come up with $6 million of its own money this year to cut class sizes in first and second grades.

And the district budget is already tight, Romero said.

“We’re still looking at options,” Romero said. “We’re trying to be very creative. We’re looking at any idea that’s on the table, and I mean any idea.”

The district’s facilities crunch is fueled by an enrollment jump of about 800 to 1,000 students per year over the last decade.

Some relief was provided in early July with the opening of a new school, Jefferson II, but that is the only campus to be added since 1967.

Other measures to relieve overcrowding have included putting 16 of the 22 schools on year-round schedules, bringing in portable classrooms and modifying attendance boundaries.