The Sunnyvale Elementary School District Board of Education voted 3-2 March 6 to approve implementation of class-size reduction in second grade for the next school year. The implementation means the district will open Fairwood School and that nearly 500 students must move to a new campus.
Board members Peggy Quillinan and Linda Kilian opposed the plan, citing financial uncertainty and lack of proof of the benefits of smaller class sizes.
Kilian raised questions about deficit spending on class-size reduction without having money to bring back programs such as art and music, which the district has cut in the past.
Class-size reduction in second grade received almost unanimous support from a large contingent of parents in an advisory vote at a special meeting in late January, even though some children will be bused to different schools.
SESD Superintendent Doris Wilson predicted that 160 Bishop Elementary students will move to Lakewood School to accommodate a 20-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio at Bishop.
Bishop has one of the largest populations of the seven elementary schools in the district, but is the second smallest in terms of its boundaries.
The district would then open Fairwood School, which at least 328 current Lakewood students would attend.
The estimated cost of renovating Fairwood before it can open in the fall is $2.6 million, which would be covered under the $34 million school improvement bond passed in June, said Ben Picard, the district's deputy superintendent.
Operating expenses--such as administration and utility costs--at Fairwood are estimated at $250,000 a year.
Quillinan expressed concern about the instability of state money that would partially fund the project. The state gives each district $650 per student for reducing class sizes. The district's costs amount to an estimated $200,000 per year if the program is implemented in kindergarten through third grade. First and second grade alone will cost $125,000. Additional money for facilities would not come out of the general fund. The district has already placed a tentative order for eight portables at $100,00 apiece for second-grade class-size reduction next year.
Picard could not promise that state funding would not dry up. He could only stress the importance of not remaining "an island" as the only district in the area not to implement the program.
Boardmember Linda Kilian worries that no studies show that a 20-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio would improve classroom instruction enough to warrant the financial risk.
Studies show the benefits of a 15-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio, but Superintendent Wilson pointed out that many classes were reduced from 24-to-1 to 15-to-1 to gauge improvement.
Only Utah has larger class sizes than California, she said.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 12, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.