County’s School Districts to Get Additional $363,350 for Reducing Class Sizes

Ventura County educators cheered the news Tuesday that they will collect an additional $363,350--on top of the $13.5 million in state funding they requested--for exceeding their class-size reduction goals.

“That just shows our educational leaders got right on this and moved ahead quickly to reduce those class sizes because they’ve been looking forward to doing this for a while,” county schools Supt. Charles Weis said.

The final accounting of the popular class-size reduction program will be officially released today by the state Department of Education. According to the report, 13 of 18 local school districts placed more students in smaller classes in the 1996-97 school year than expected and therefore will receive additional money.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District, the county’s second-largest district with 18,574 students, will receive the single largest additional payment. It will collect $118,300 above the nearly $2.67 million it originally requested.

The district was the only one in the county to reduce class sizes in first through third grades at all 18 elementary schools by the first day of school. The district hired 79 teachers before the school year started.

“We’re delighted,” Supt. Jerry Gross said of the additional funding that the district will receive. “To get the money we anticipated is good management.”

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The Ventura Unified School District, the county’s third-largest, asked for nearly $1.24 million but will collect $114,400 more after reducing class sizes for 176 more students than anticipated.

Like most all county districts, administrators waded through the logistics of finding the money, space, teachers and portable classrooms to make the class-size reduction program happen.

“It was a lot of work,” said Joseph Richards, the Ventura district’s assistant superintendent of business services.

“It took a lot of time, but it did pay off,” he said. “Hopefully when we get our test scores, we’ll see [them] improve, but the teachers felt better about their classrooms and the parents felt better and so did the students. So that alone made it worthwhile.”

By the end of June, local schools placed nearly 600 more students in classes with 20 or fewer peers than they stated they would in their November applications to the state. That brings a total of 18,764 students--or about 48% of the county’s kindergarten to third-graders--who enjoyed smaller class sizes this school year.

The state a year ago began offering $650 for every student placed in classes with 20 or fewer pupils, with the goal of improving reading and writing skills for California’s youngest students.

It’s too early to gauge the program’s success through test scores. But teachers throughout the county have already reported that they gave students more individual attention, reduced discipline problems and boosted student performance as a result of the year’s smaller class sizes.

Although school officials say they are pleased to receive more money than they expected, they also point out that they will not be able to cover all their expenses.

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For instance, the Conejo Valley district spent $500,000 of its own money and borrowed $2 million more during this past school year to cover the costs of purchasing more portable classrooms.

Others districts such as Oxnard, Hueneme, Fillmore and Rio were also faced with a shortage of space. All four districts fell slightly short of meeting their goals.

Oxnard School District will receive 92% of the nearly $1.8 million that it asked for. The district was unable to find enough space to pare down the number of classes it had hoped to.

“For us, that continues to be the greatest problem related to class-size reduction,” Supt. Bernard Korenstein said of the space crunch. He said this is the reason that the district concentrated most of its efforts on first-grade classes.

The district plans on reducing class sizes in more grades once it gets additional money for portable classrooms. It also plans on building two more elementary schools with money from a $57-million school bond measure approved by voters last month.

Meanwhile, Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed expanding the class-size reduction program. He has suggested adding $500 million to the $1 billion set aside last year for the program.

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Reduced Class Sizes

A year ago, the state began offering an incentive plan to pare class sizes in the lower elementary grades. School districts would receive $650 for every student placed in a class of 20 or fewer pupils. The chart shows how much state money school districts in Ventura County applied for in November and how much they actually received in June. The last column indicates the difference between the November and June figures.

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November June amount School district application received Difference Briggs Elementary $58,825 $90,350 $31,525 Conejo Valley Unified $2,666,300 $2,784,600 $118,300 Fillmore Unified $187,850 $186,550 -$1,300 Hueneme Elementary $641,550 $637,000 -$4,550 Mesa Union Elementary $52,000 $52,000 $0 Moorpark Unified $1,173,900 $1,198,600 $24,700 Mupu Elementary $17,550 $20,150 $2,600 Oak Park Unified $508,950 $516,100 $7,150 Ocean View Elementary $222,950 $239,200 $16,250 Ojai Unified $385,450 $403,650 $18,200 Oxnard Elementary $1,793,350 $1,650,350 -$143,000 Pleasant Valley Elementary $1,186,250 $1,264,575 $78,325 Rio Elementary $208,000 $205,400 -$2,600 Santa Clara Elementary $7,800 $9,100 $1,300 Santa Paula Elementary $303,550 $313,950 $10,400 Simi Valley Unified $2,796,950 $2,886,000 $89,050 Somis Union Elementary $75,400 $78,000 $2,600 Ventura Unified $1,235,000 $1,349,400 $114,400 TOTAL $13,521,625 $13,884,975 $363,350

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