By KATHERINE PETERSEN
More than 50 parents from four elementary schools and one preschool united Dec. 12 to oppose some of Cupertino Union School District's plans to lower class sizes.
Class-size reduction, only partially funded by the state, will lower the student-teacher ratio from about 30-to-1 to 20-to-1.
Pamela Ketcham, whose first-grade daughter attends Garden Gate School, said parents might be surprised to find out some children have been placed in classes with a student-teacher ratio of 40-to-2 rather than 20-to-1 because the school board said the district doesn't have the space to implement the 20-to-1 ratio in all first-grade classes.
"We want to be sure the district is maintaining a high level of education in the classroom as they implement class-size reduction. We believe that a 40-to-2 ratio compromises the level of instruction," Ketcham said. A parent volunteer in her daughter's kindergarten last year, Ketcham said 33 students in the classroom can create a lot of noise and distraction.
"The classroom environment would be jeopardized," she said.
Parents from Garden Gate, Nimitz, Stocklmeir, Sedgwick and Bright Beginnings Preschool attended the meeting at Garden Gate.
Another way the district proposes to create more classroom space is to eliminate a popular "staggered" kindergarten schedule, a plan that also touched a nerve with many of the parents who attended the meeting.
With the staggered schedule, students arrive in shifts. In the morning and afternoon, teachers have just 17 children in their classroom. In the middle of the day, all 34 students are present.
The district has suggested instead an "a.m.-p.m." kindergarten schedule, wherein two teachers would work with about 34 children in the morning and 34 different children in the afternoon. Parents say such a schedule takes away opportunities for individualized attention.
Ketcham and fellow parent Lisa Carpenter believe the district is taking "the path of least resistance" to implement class-size reduction.
The district has gradually implemented smaller classes in first grade throughout the district, with 11 team-taught classes (with 40-to-2 ratios) in 18 schools. Two of the 40-to-2 classes are at Garden Gate School.
"I think they did a good job implementing it this year, given what they had to work with," Ketcham said.
Ketcham urged all parents to attend a district study session Jan. 7 at Stocklmeir School, where the board of trustees will consider class-size reduction options. One option would be to open one of the district's six closed school sites, which are currently leased out to private schools and other organizations. The schools were closed because enrollment in the district had dropped.
The board recently voted to end the lease at Eaton School. But district officials warn that opening a closed school site will cost the district money in the form of on-site management, secretaries, utilities and other overhead. In addition, the district would lose revenue it currently receives from leasing the school out.
Still, reopening a campus remains a possibility.
"We're considering the possibility of alternative site use because the district is growing in size as well as [implementing] class reduction. A lot of new families are moving into the district," said John Erkman, assistant superintendent for instruction.
Erkman does not agree that the level of students' education will be affected by a 40-to-2 ratio in classrooms.
"There isn't anything other than personal preference that would lead us to believe that students' educations will be jeopardized. In essence, there is the same amount of square footage space per child in a classroom with 40 or 30 children," Erkman said.
In larger classes children will have the advantage of two teachers who can get to know them and assess them, and the teachers can brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other to create the best instructional program, Erkman said.
In an a.m.-p.m. kindergarten, which is the most common delivery practice in Santa Clara County, the ratio of 17-1 will be maintained, Erkman said.
"In a well-managed classroom where children are clear on procedure, the number of children should not affect the quality of education. One group can work on computers, another on blocks and another on language," Erkman said.
According to Jerd Ferraiuolo, director of facility modernization, who attended the Garden Gate meeting as a representative for Superintendent Pat Lamson, said the district would need 33 classrooms to implement class-size reduction in first grade throughout the district. That number reflects a 20-to-1 ratio in each classroom without changing to an a.m.-p.m. kindergarten format.
But Garden Gate parent Carpenter worked with other parents to figure out a way to implement the program that would require only one additional classroom.
"There's a lot of alternatives, and it was fun to let people know. The numbers may not be as huge as people were saying, and we can solve it. If you start from the bottom and work up, you can solve one school at a time," Carpenter said.
Parents at Nimitz have followed Garden Gate's lead and begun to pass out petitions. Parents hope that by banding together and working on one school at a time, they can work things out, Carpenter said.
"Doubling up classes and a.m.-p.m. kindergarten are not necessary, and the district should stop looking at it. These programs don't make academic sense," Carpenter said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 18, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.