Photograph by George Sakkestad
Garden Gate School parent Melissa Hilton addresses the school board at a class-size meeting Jan. 7.
By MIKE DE GIVE
Parents came prepared to a meeting on class-size reduction Jan. 7, using charts, academic studies and petitions to make their case to the Cupertino Union School District board.
About 250 parents attended the meeting, held at Stocklmeir School. Most who spoke said the district should continue funding first-grade classes with a student-teacher ratio of 20-to-1. But virtually everyone warned the district to proceed with caution in expanding the costly program to the second and third grades. Schools shouldn't pay for smaller class sizes in the lower grades by taking resources away from older children, many emphasized.
"Let's evaluate the success of 20-to-1 before pouring more money into it," said Betty Brittle, a parent at Nimitz Elementary School.
In contrast to a September meeting on the same subject --when parents issued an order of "full steam ahead"--constituents told the board last week to slow things down a notch to study the financial and educational implications of class-size reduction.
With the options for making the 20-to-1 ratio work ranging from year-round schooling to a parcel tax, board members acknowledge that finding the best solution won't be easy.
"There's no way everyone in this room is going to agree with any decision we make. I know that going in," trustee Debbie Byron said at the meeting. "We will try to make balanced tradeoffs to meet as many of our needs as possible."
Most parents were adamant that the district should not tinker with its kindergarten schedule to free up more classroom space. One option on the table would swap the popular "staggered" kindergarten schedule--in which the ratio is at 17-to-1 for most of the day--to an "a.m./p.m." schedule, wherein teachers work with one class of 34 children in the morning and a second class of 34 students in the afternoon.
"Don't go backwards to a.m./p.m. kindergarten," said Lisa Carpenter, a parent at Garden Gate Elementary School. "The current program works."
For the first time, the district gave examples of programs that could be cut to pay for smaller classes. Up for elimination would be support for technology, intervention programs and nonmandated home-to-school transportation, Superintendent Pat Lamson said. The district could also clean schools less frequently, reduce grounds maintenance and eliminate district office support for staff development.
"If we get to the point we have to cut, I would have community meetings and meetings with each of our unions to get their suggestion on what should be done," Lamson said after the meeting.
The state's class-size legislation provides $650 for every child that is enrolled in a classroom with a 20-to-1 ratio. The actual cost of the program, however, is more than $1,100 per child, Lamson said.
Smaller classes in first grade alone will cost about $900,000 next year, over and above what the state kicks in. Adding second grade and kindergarten to the mix would cost $1.3 million; getting third grade down to 20-to-1 would cost $2.7 million.
Each scenario would put the district in deficit-spending mode, leaving a budget shortfall ranging from $540,000 to $2.4 million.
Many parents also made it clear that they did not want their children in a team-taught class, where the ratio would be 40-to-2 instead of 20-to-1. The dynamics of so many children in one classroom would cancel out the benefits of the smaller ratio, they said.
They also pointed out that one advantage of class-size reduction is the extra space it provides. A typical classroom at a 20-to-1 ratio would mean 48 square feet per child. A typical team-taught 40-to-2 room would bring the space down to 30 square feet per child, which is the minimum required by the state.
The board and administration will continue to study the issue and invite more community input.
"I truthfully believe that our community and our teachers are very proud of the program in our school district and what we are doing. And I think as we look to expand our classroom reduction, we have to do that without jeopardizing what we already have," Lamson said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 15, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.