With the 2008-09 school year starting in two weeks, teachers and administrators are taking a careful look at incoming student numbers and their effect on class sizes.
In kindergarten through third grade, state-mandated class sizes of 20 are set, but some schools end up mixing adjacent grades to max out each classroom at exactly 20. Meanwhile, fourth through 12th grades, where classes may have any number of students, are hitting uncomfortably high numbers. Among other major districts, the Aromas-San Juan district faces similar problems with class sizes, while San Benito High School's principal declined to release numbers because they're incomplete.
"The fourth to eighth grades currently are projected to have an average of 34 students," said Ron Crates, superintendent of the Hollister School District, noting it's up from an average of 30 last year.
"We are starting with high numbers - there is no doubt about that," said Principal White of Calaveras Elementary School, going on to note that the class sizes in the fourth and fifth grades are quite large but that they hope to reduce those numbers in the first 10 days as they get a better idea of exactly how many students they have.
"If the numbers continue to be as high as they are, we will hire more teachers," said White.
There will be some mixed-grade classes at Calaveras, as with most schools in the district.
According to Ronna Gilani, the president of the Hollister Elementary Teachers Association, this practice takes place in order to cut back on the number of teachers needed.
"They don't want any classes to fall below 20," she observed, further stating that in years past, there may have been a class with 16 or 17 students.
"One school might have 16 kids total in the fourth grade and 24 in the fifth," explained Superintendent Crates. "We can't have that, so we take those classes and mix them together so that we have 20 in each."
The same thing is done in fourth to eighth, but the practice results in an average of 34 students per class at that level.
Crates went on to note that no one favors mixing grade levels, or having such large classes, but that extreme solutions are called for in these tough budgetary times.
Principal Krystal Lomanto of San Benito High School, meanwhile, declined to comment on class sizes, saying: "I am not able to comment on class sizes right now as we still have many students coming in to enroll this and next week."
SBHS Superintendent Stan Rose did not return phone calls seeking comment.
In the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District, Superintendent Jaquie Munoz is going through the same juggling act.
"The issue for our district is our small size," said Munoz. "We can't just transfer students to other schools when classes get crowded."
Munoz noted there will be mixed-grade classes in kindergarten through third grades. But a stipulation in the teachers' contract states that if class sizes in the fourth through eighth grades exceed 32 students, teachers receive extra compensation.
In the cash-strapped Aromas district, this is a powerful incentive to keep class sizes down. Munoz did not know the exact compensation teachers receive for each student over the 32 cap.
A similar contract stipulation in Hollister compensates teachers when classes exceed 30 students.
"We just won't know for sure what the numbers will be until the 10th day of school," said Crates, continuing to say that if the numbers rose above 20 per class in the lower grades or much more than 34 in the upper grades, new teachers would be hired.
Jeff Gatlin Jeff Gatlin is a staff writer at The Hollister Free Lance. You can call him at (831) 637-5566 or send him an email.
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Students warm up for school
