Ventura Officials to Hire More Teachers

As part of a state initiative to trim the size of classes, Ventura school officials agreed Tuesday to hire 37 additional teachers to make sure no first-grader goes to school in a room with more than 20 students.

Jerry Dannenberg, in charge of hiring for the Ventura Unified School District, said the district has already signed contracts with most of the new teachers--a major feat considering the class size plan has sent the demand for teachers statewide soaring.

“It was a little bit harder to find the teachers than normal,” said Dannenberg, assistant superintendent for human resources. “We really had to work to make sure that we had the people in place that we wanted.”

Of the $771 million in state grant money to reduce class size, Ventura expects to receive about $1.36 million to hire the extra teachers, requiring the district to pony up an additional $258,550 to cover the full cost of the program.

But district officials said reducing the student-teacher ratio will help pupils learn basic English and math faster and that the district will find a way to close the money gap with reserves and other revenues.

The state grant program eventually calls for reducing class size in three primary grades and gives schools that manage to lower class size to no more than 20 pupils $650 per student each year.

“The building blocks of education begin in these grades,” said trustee Velma Loma, who joined in the unanimous decision to approve the funding. “That is when you get your reading skills, your listening skills and your math skills.”

Administrators and faculty members are also in favor of smaller classes for the primary grades.

“Children are going to get more individual instruction,” Trudy Arriaga, principal of Sheridan Way Elementary, said of the changes. “Teachers are going to be able to intervene on a more regular basis than with a group of 32 kids.”

Like many of Ventura’s 17 elementary schools, Sheridan Way in west Ventura has been hard-pressed to find enough classroom space for its added teachers and 135 first-graders.

So to create two new classrooms, the 600-student school has closed its technology lab and moved all the computers into individual classrooms. And it has shipped all the books in its library to a nearby community center, where students will now go to borrow materials.

Pat Chandler, assistant superintendent for educational services, said other schools have built temporary walls in larger classrooms and converted teacher lounges to make new space.

“I had a great deal of faith in our principals and it was not misplaced,” Chandler said. “They came through big time.”

Although Chandler said the district has not found the space or extra money to shrink class size in three grades at all schools, four elementaries--Arnaz, Oak View, Lincoln and Pierpont--will have no more than 20 students per class in the kindergarten through second grades starting in the fall.

“These are all small schools and we could find some space by being creative,” Chandler said. “It just made good sense.”

The district so far has avoided putting students on staggered schedules that would free up classroom space by making pupils attend school in different shifts. Some students, for instance, might start the day in the early morning and leave in the afternoon while others would begin school later in the day and finish in the early evening.

As the schools reduce the maximum size of their first-grade classes, a committee of parents, district officials and city leaders is working on a long-term plan to find ways to create more classroom space for Ventura’s growing student population.

Some options the group will study include opening schools that have been closed for many years, building new facilities or asking students to attend school on a year-round, multitrack basis.

Under the “multitrack” proposal, students would attend school in four different sessions, freeing up 25% more classroom space as only 75% of the students would attend school at the same time.

“We are already working as a community to find more options,” said Arriaga, a member of the special committee.