Officials Recommend Smaller Class Sizes

Administrators at the Cypress School District are recommending that all first-grade classes immediately be reduced to 20 students this fall.

Assistant Supt. Elizabeth Novack said concentration should be on the first grade “because it’s such a critical year in terms of student development.” She said the district staff is recommending that “based on space availability, second grades be reduced in size this year with site-by-site decisions.”

Smaller kindergarten and third-grade classes would be phased in as “long-term goals,” Novack said.

The school board, Novack added, has informally indicated its support of the recommendations and is expected to vote for approval at its Aug. 20 meeting. Cypress School District, which has about 4,500 elementary-grade students, serves all of Cypress and parts of La Palma and Buena Park.

Lower-sized classes would allow the district to take advantage of money provided in the state’s new budget. The money allows for lowering of class sizes in kindergarten through third grade.

Novack said Cypress School District already has smaller average classes than many other elementary systems in Orange County. “Our average class size now is 29,” she said. “The district has had a primary goal of low class sizes.”

To reduce first grades to 20 students this fall, the district will have to find more classroom spaces. Additional teachers also will have to be hired.