Schools to Use State Funds to Cut Class Size

The Las Virgenes Unified School District has adopted a plan to reduce class size in first through third grades.

The district board of education voted recently to use state funds to help reduce first-grade classes from 30 to 20 students per teacher beginning in September and to similarly alter class sizes for second and third grades starting in February.

District officials have hired most of the 16 new teachers who will be needed in September and are interviewing candidates for 32 other positions to be available midyear.

The district wanted to move cautiously by implementing the plan in at least two phases because of concerns about facilities and funding, said Donald Zimring, assistant superintendent of business. Since its eight elementary schools are overcrowded now, he said, the district did not want to use school facilities, such as libraries or multipurpose rooms, as classrooms.

“Based on how little was known about the [state] funding and how much it will cost the district, the board wanted to go slow,” he said.

Along with the $771-million reduction package the state has promised public schools comes the burden of having to pay for other costs incurred by the reduction.

In addition to new teachers, districts will need more classrooms and will need to provide support to teachers during the change, said school board member Barbara Bowman Fagelson.

“You don’t just reduce class sizes and then go about doing things the same way,” she said.

The state has estimated that reducing class size would cost $775 per student, but it will only provide districts with $650 per student for that purpose. The districts are expected to make up the difference, Zimring said.