Public Schools in O.C. Now the Hot Ticket

Orange County public schools report a sudden surge in enrollments of primary grade students transferring from private schools, a trend administrators ascribe to this year’s state class-size reduction program.

Harbour View Elementary in Huntington Beach, for instance, this year gained an unprecedented 40 private school transfers--more than three times last year’s 13, and five times as many as the eight students in 1994.

“That’s the biggest increase in the district’s history,” Harbour View Principal Roni Burns-Ellis said. “We anticipated that we would get more private [school] students . . . but we didn’t realize it would be that many.”

One of the parents who made the switch was Anita Thomas, who took her second-grade daughter, Katie, out of a Catholic school and enrolled her in Harbour View.

“It was hard for us to make the decision,” Thomas said. “Katie’s First Communion is this year. . . . We considered taking her to another private school. But once the stories were coming out about reduced class sizes in a school two miles from our house, I thought, ‘This is wonderful.’ ”

Parents’ newfound willingness to test the public schools is a hopeful sign for the oft-maligned public education system, which often deals with limited resources, government cutbacks and overcrowding.

The state earlier this year passed a $971-million funding bill to help schools pare class sizes to a maximum 20 per pupil in kindergarten through third grade.

Educators heralded the move as a significant step toward raising reading and math scores, and the prospect that more people are seeing public education as a viable alternative was welcome news to some.

“It’s neat to see education get a positive report,” said Burns-Ellis, an educator for 12 years. “As a teacher and administrator, we have not been given credit for turning out a great product. Now, everyone is looking at us with great hopes.”

Private school administrators say their classrooms are not emptying out, though they have received reports of transfers attributed to the class-size reduction program.

More than half of the county’s 43 Catholic campuses, which account for the bulk of private schools, still have extensive waiting lists of students trying to enroll. And with parents choosing private schools for more varied reasons than just class size, administrators are not worried yet.

“In a couple of areas in the county, I’ve heard from principals that some students have left our schools for [smaller public classes], but not very many, because we’re still up by 2% to 5% in enrollments this year,” said Diocese of Orange Schools Supt. Brother William Carriere. “There’s no clear indication that there will be an exodus of students because of this new law.”

Most Catholic schools average 30 students a class, or up to 35 pupils if there is a teacher’s aide, Carriere said.

Still, he added, “It hasn’t impacted our students’ performance. Our students still score high on the national and standardized tests.”

Dana Point Christian School administrator JoAnne Huston said she is not aware of any of her students leaving for public schools, but the smaller class sizes did lure away prospective students.

Some parents called the school earlier this year asking whether this school would also cut class sizes. Huston said the school cannot afford classes smaller than its typical 25. Those parents never called back.

“This is the first year in quite a while that we have not had full classes and there are no waiting lists,” Huston said.

The influx of private school transfers is apparent in several pockets of the county.

Administrators across the county have found that this year’s enrollments in the primary grades far exceeded projections--particularly in the first grades. All but one of Orange County’s school districts have plans to lower class sizes in at least that grade, and many have carried out the reduction.

At Moulton Elementary in Laguna Niguel, 21 former private school students enrolled this year, compared with the typical two or three transfers.

Capistrano Unified gained 518 more students than projected, and 407 of them came from private schools.

In the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified district, almost 200 more first-graders entered its schools, unlike the usual growth of 20 pupils.

Demographic patterns account for some of the rise, but some administrators are convinced the class-size reduction has played a big role.

“We don’t usually have this tremendous change,” said Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified Assistant Supt. Tim VanEck. “We do believe the smaller classes are attracting growth.”

For parents like Thomas, overcrowded classes were a major concern.

Throughout kindergarten and the first grade, her daughter Katie had trouble with reading assignments. She competed for the teacher’s attention in a class of 38 pupils.

Finally, Thomas decided to work only part time as a travel agent, so that she could spend more time tutoring Katie after school and shuttle the girl to private reading classes twice a week.

“We were committed to spending $225 a month at the Catholic school and then $170 month on the reading classes,” Thomas added. “But we were spending a lot of money, on things that I thought she should be getting at her school.”

Still, Thomas, who attended Catholic school, said she wrestled with the idea of pulling out her daughter, who was baptized at the same Catholic school Thomas once attended.

Although in a public school now, Katie still gets religious instruction in a private, after-school class.

“The religion will come and it will always be there in our family,” Thomas said. “I’m glad we made the change. She really is progressing.”

Other parents agreed that the smaller classes helped them make the change.

George Johnston moved his two children, in first and third grade, into Moulton Elementary from a Christian school.

His decision was based in part on the $700 a month for his children’s schooling last year, which was financially taxing.

But the class-size reduction program played a role too.

“Without the smaller class sizes, it would have been harder to make the decision,” Johnston said.

Christi Ulrich, whose children for years attended a Catholic school because of its religious, small-schoolhouse ambience, was nervous about enrolling her two daughters in public school.

But Ulrich said her older daughter is very shy and she feared the girl was becoming too sheltered in the Catholic school.

“I really felt a class of 20 would be beneficial,” said Ulrich, whose children now attend Harbour View. “That sort of me got me over the bridge.”

While some public schools are still struggling to lower class sizes by the February deadline, those that have met the goal said they feel confident about the program’s effectiveness.

“The feeling has been their children would have more access to the teacher [in private schools],” said James R. Tarwater, superintendent of the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach. “Now we are on an even playing field. We’re definitely going to see improvement in our students’ performance.”