Donations to Maintain K-3 Class-Size Limits in Irvine

Private donations totaling $1.3 million to Irvine schools will ensure small classes in kindergarten through third grade next year and save other programs, but dozens of teachers will lose their jobs to budget cuts, school officials said Tuesday night.

“The fact that people have been able to go out and raise this kind of money in this short period of time is miraculous,” said Patricia Clark White, superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District.

Facing a $5.2-million budget shortfall, the district’s trustees in January announced plans to drop the state-sponsored program that limits class size to 20 students in kindergarten through third grade.

School districts across California are facing similar financial crises, largely due to a $12.5-billion deficit in the state budget. But in Irvine a three-month fund-raising campaign by parents and the Irvine Public Schools Foundation brought in $1.3 million--enough to save the class-size limit, said Tim Shaw, executive director of the foundation.

A sixth-grade science program and art classes in grades four through six also may be saved, though the board did not vote on that issue Tuesday.

But trustees said 15 special-education instructors, 60 athletic coaches, four high school counselors, four district nurses and art programs in kindergarten through third grade will be cut--measures that will save the district at least $2 million. Officials sent preliminary layoff notices to 130 teachers in March and had been poised Tuesday to eliminate another 50 positions had small class sizes been abandoned.

More than 200 teachers rallied outside the district’s headquarters Tuesday night, waving signs that read, “Irvine teachers are worth more than zero.” Inside the boardroom, teachers spoke out against contract negotiations that so far would not include a pay increase.

Still, the general mood was upbeat. The board’s approval of funding to keep small classes drew cheers and loud, long applause from teachers and parents. Trustee Margie Wakeham told the audience: “I really didn’t think there would be this much money, and I have to give you a ton of credit for going out there and beating the bushes.”

Contributions came from scores of parents, as well as local businesses and the city.

“One mother called and said, ‘I don’t have a job, but can I send you money in two weeks?’” said parent Lita Robinow, who organized a fund-raiser in February that brought in $106,000. “People from the most affluent families to the least affluent contributed.”

To save class-size reduction, the district needed $1.43 million, of which $500,000 would come from the state. Since February, the foundation has raised the remaining $930,000, nearly half of that from parents.

Contributions from the Donald Bren Foundation, Taco Bell and the Irvine Ranch Water District saved the science program and part of the art program--pending board approval--at least for one more school year.

“This is a Band-Aid,” Robinow said. “It doesn’t nearly address the problems that the district has, and we need a long-term solution from Sacramento, Washington, and we need some kind of a parcel tax. You can’t fight this problem with individual donations every year.”

Private funds have bailed out district programs before. Donations totaling more than $2 million by the Irvine Co. and the Bren Foundation rescued art, music and science programs in 2000.

Said Jerry Amante, president of the Irvine Public Schools Foundation: “We keep spitting at this forest fire with one-time donations.”