Kindergarten Class Size Reduced at 5 Schools

Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees voted Thursday for smaller kindergarten classes at five of the district’s 18 elementary schools this fall.

The five--Acacia, Conejo, Cypress, Maple and Wildwood--are the only elementary schools in the district that have room for kindergarten classes of 20 or fewer pupils.

Trustees took the action knowing it might spark envy in the hearts of some parents and teachers who won’t reap the benefits.

“That’s always a concern,” trustee Delores Didio said before the vote. “But if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities you have when you have them, sometimes they pass you by.”

Last year, the district reduced the size of its first- through third-grade classes, adding teachers and portable buildings as needed.

Now, with the state expected to boost funding for class-size reduction efforts from $650 to $800 per student, Thousand Oaks school officials want to extend those efforts to kindergarten.

The additional state money will cover the salaries for new teachers. But it won’t stretch far enough to pay for more portable classrooms--and 13 of the district’s elementary schools would each need another portable to handle smaller kindergarten classes.

“We only have so many portables; we only have so much space,” trustee Elaine McKearn said.

The move to cut kindergarten class sizes depends on whether the state follows through with the promise of increased funding for the program. If the additional funding does not materialize, class sizes will not be reduced.

The idea of cutting class sizes in some, but not all kindergartens troubled board President Mildred Lynch.

“I’m not crazy about this idea, because I don’t like to see things split up this way--the haves and the have-nots,” she said.

Moments later, however, she too voted for the proposal.

Susan Falk, president of the Unified Assn. of Conejo Teachers, said that the decision will create inequality between schools, with some teachers able to spend more time with individual students than others. But she understood the trustees’ motivation.

“We would like to see everyone go to a 20-to-1 ratio, but you need facilities and you need money,” Falk said. “We just don’t have the facilities and the money isn’t there for facilities.”

Even at Weathersfield School, one of the elementary schools that didn’t make the list for reduced-class sizes, parent Patti Yomantas said she understood the trustees’ rationale. As president of the school’s PTA, Yomantas said Weathersfield’s administration had done wonders finding room for smaller classes last year.

Still, Yomantas is such an ardent fan of class-size reduction that she could not help wishing Weathersfield kindergartners had been included in the district’s latest action.

“Naturally, we were disappointed,” she said.

Trustees said Thursday, however, that the district would be able to cut the size of kindergarten classes at more schools if Thousand Oaks voters this November approve a $97-million bond proposed by the district.

The bond issue--which, if passed, would be the largest in Ventura County history--is intended to pay for upgrading all the district’s schools and expanding class-size reduction efforts.