Class-size reduction efforts could be reduced

One Calaveras County elementary school is planning to withdraw from a popular state program that limits classrooms to 20 students per teacher, and others may have to do the same after mid-year budget cuts.

Mark Twain Union Elementary School District will likely end its participation in California’s Class Size Reduction Program in some classes this year, said Calaveras County Superintendent of Schools John Brophy.

Under the program, schools receive roughly $1,000 for every kindergarten through third-grade student in a class of 20 children or fewer.
   

“They’re definitely looking at having to go out of the class size reduction program at this time,” Brophy said of Mark Twain Union Elementary School District.

Officials at the district — which includes Mark Twain Elementary School, Mark Twain Community School and Copperopolis Elementary School — could not be reached for comment.

At Calaveras Unified School District, the 20-to-1 ratio has been preserved despite budget cuts by reducing staffing through attrition and applying more-flexible program rules, said Assistant Superintendent Mike Merrill.

The program used to levy an up to 80 percent penalty on program funds for exceeding an average of 20.44 enrolled students during the full school year. Now the maximum penalty is 30 percent, he said.

Class sizes in grades outside the program have also been allowed to creep upward in the district, which consists of Jenny Lind, Mokelumne Hill, Rail Road Flat, San Andreas, Valley Springs and West Point elementary schools, as well as Calaveras High School, Toyon Middle School and district-run alternative education programs.

“Our other classes have gone up in size a little,” Merrill said.

At Calaveras High School, this means classes of 25 or more that once were closer to 20, though many of the larger classes are nothing new, said Principal Ric Stitt.

Physical education classes have been at 45 to 48 students since he was hired as a teacher nine years ago and the school does not participate in a separate state program to reduce the size of freshman classes.

“We actually have kind of given up on that,” he said. “Over the past couple years we’ve tried to work on our intervention programs.”

Keeping the programs, which target students who have struggled to keep pace with their peers, has let the school allow about two-thirds of its freshman English and math classes to go from 21 — the number required by the state’s program — to about 25 students, he said.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep those cuts as far from the classroom as possible,” Stitt said.

But as further budget cuts are issued from Sacramento, other districts in the county may also be forced to expand class sizes, Brophy said.

“I think everyone is looking ahead because we expect there is going to be more bad news,” he said. “We don’t think we’re through the worst of this.”