by
Mary Beth Faller - Aug. 17, 2010 09:38 AM
The Arizona Republic
The effects of the state's budget crisis are showing up inside packed classrooms in Scottsdale and Fountain Hills.
As school started Aug. 9, the two districts had larger class sizes in every grade, including kindergarten classes of 27 to 30 children.
Some Scottsdale
parents became alarmed the week before school started, meeting with district administrators to express their concerns. In Fountain Hills, a group of parents addressed the governing board at its meeting last week.
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"The kindergarten class sizes are way too large and I don't feel the kids are getting the attention they need at such a young age," Elaine Sommerschield,
parent of a kindergartner at McDowell Mountain Elementary School, told the Fountain Hills board.
Susan Jones, a Cochise Elementary School parent in Scottsdale, said some parents felt betrayed because they voted for a K-3 budget override last fall, believing it would keep class sizes small, and for the state sales-tax increase in May to preserve teachers' jobs.
District administrators acknowledged the parents' anger but said the state's cuts to local budgets were just too deep.
Both Scottsdale Superintendent Gary Catalani and Fountain Hills Superintendent Bill Myhr said K-3 override money was targeted at keeping class sizes low, but when the state decided in the spring to no longer fund all-day kindergarten starting with the 2010-11 school year, the districts had to use their override money to salvage that program.
The Proposition 100 sales-tax increase offset some but not all of the deep funding cuts from the state.
Catalani said class sizes would be much higher if voters had not passed Proposition 100 in May. Still, Scottsdale laid off 77 teachers and Fountain Hills 14.
Both districts increased class sizes at all grade levels. Scottsdale has a class size cap of 30 students in kindergarten, and several schools are at that limit, Catalani said.
Myhr said the Fountain Hills kindergartens have 27 students, while first through third grades have up to 29 per class. One fourth-grade class has 34 students.
Fountain Hills' situation is complicated by the fact that enrollment is declining. The number of students dropped 6.6 percent over the course of the 2009-10 school year, and 48 more students left over the summer, according to Tim Leedy, assistant superintendent of business and support service. As enrollment declines, so does funding from the state.
Fountain Hills hired a kindergarten teacher over the summer when staff verified through phone calls to parents that the classes would have up to 34 students, Myhr said.
"Frankly, we don't have any more money for teachers," he said.
Catalani said Scottsdale's new centralized enrollment system allowed the district to accurately move teachers from underenrolled schools to overenrolled schools, but without money from the newly approved federal education jobs bill, class sizes would stay large. The Arizona Department of Education has not revealed how it will divide the $212 million it will receive.
Myhr said any money Fountain Hills gets from the federal grant would only be a short-term fix.
"This may be the new normal until education becomes an investment and not an expense," he said. "The federal money buys us time."
The Cave Creek Unified School District increased class sizes by one student per class this year, according to Superintendent Debbi Burdick.
The Paradise Valley Unified School District was able to decrease class sizes slightly this year after Proposition 100 passed, after raising class sizes the year before.
Anne Hanson, president of the Scottsdale Education Association teachers' group, said large class sizes decrease time spent on each child in the classroom and outside.
"Large classes mean teachers work more. Before, you were disciplining two little munchkins as opposed to five now. Or you were passing out 25 papers and now you're passing out 33 papers, and three people instead of one person forgot to bring a pencil.
"You can see how many precious seconds and minutes are taken away from actual class time."
