Senator Says Extend Class-Size Reduction Plan to 4th Grades

State Sen. Jack O’Connell is proposing that the state extend its efforts to reduce elementary school class sizes from kindergarten to fourth grade and pay school districts more to accomplish that goal, a move that brought praise from Ventura county educators Friday.

O’Connell, a Democrat representing western Ventura County, said he introduced bills this week that would expand the program from three to five grades, allowing students from kindergarten to fourth grade to enjoy classes no larger than 20 students.

He also introduced a measure that would reimburse districts $750 for each student in a smaller class--up from the $650 school districts received in the first round of the state-funded program.

He also is seeking to place a $4-billion state school bond measure on the November 1998 ballot, of which $1 billion would go toward facilities needed for class-size reduction.

“We have experienced an educational revolution without using technology . . . ,” O’Connell said at a press conference. “The goal of the bill is to provide more individual and personal attention for our youngsters.”

School administrators in Ventura County’s 18 elementary and unified school districts, all participants in the class-size reduction program, greeted the news of O’Connell’s efforts with enthusiasm.

“We’re certainly interested in more funding,” said Gary Mortimer, Conejo Valley Unified’s assistant superintendent for business services. “Going from $650 to $750 [per student] is definitely a step in the right direction, as many school districts are asking that the program be fully funded.”

The higher reimbursement comes close to the $775 it would take to cover the entire cost of teachers’ salaries, books and equipment in the first year, Mortimer said. Currently, the school district is spending about $500,000 from its budget to cover salaries for the approximately 80 teachers hired for the program.

With 95% of the state’s eligible school districts participating, the state has made about $771 million available to pay schools that keep their students in the pared-down classes. In Ventura County, 20,900 students should feel the effects of having fewer classmates by mid-February, if not earlier.

O’Connell estimates about $500 million in state money will be used to expand the program two additional grades. The state senator sponsored the original class-size measure--which Gov. Pete Wilson agreed to fund in July--as part of a move to improve reading and math achievement.

But even if the state decides to fund two more grade levels, the issue of how to make space for all the new classrooms remains. The already crowded Oxnard School District is struggling just to make room for the first- and second-grade class sizes it is working to shrink.

All of Oxnard’s elementary schools have gone to year-round schedules to create room for increased enrollment. Administrators say it takes about two new elementary schools to create the amount of room for the class-size reductions at the two additional grade levels.

To alleviate the space problem, O’Connell is proposing that districts be provided with state money to hire full-time instructional aides to work with a certified teacher in a class of no more than 30 students.

While teachers may prefer a 20-to-1 ratio of students to teachers, this might be a possible option for Oxnard, Principal Ron D’Incau of Norma Harrington Elementary School said.

“It’s certainly a viable alternative especially [when] faced with the absence of portable facilities,” D’Incau said.

The Ventura Unified School District, which has reduced all its first-grade classes and one-third of its second-grade classes, is also struggling with the issue of space for smaller classes.

“We don’t have space to do kindergarten to fourth grade to 20 to 1 [student-to-teacher ratio] after doing the first-grade level,” said Georgeann Brown, the district’s director of budget and finance. “We have some schools that we barely eked out first, like Sheridan Way [elementary]. They’re full after doing the first-grade level.”

But despite the space problem, Brown said she considers the proposal for additional money earmarked for class-size reduction to be “good news.”

O’Connell expects his bills to be brought up before the Education Committee in February and implemented in September if it passes.