October 11, 2011
Elementary Class Size
Dear Parent/Guardian:
For the past few weeks, staff and the board have been struggling with board policies and language in our collective bargaining agreement around class size. The reason for this is that our district, like virtually every district in the state, adopted language in guiding documents that set class sizes at 20:1 at the K-3 level and small classes at the high school level in response to state funding for this.
Now the world has changed. Education funding has been drastically cut. The incentive structure at the state level around reducing class size has changed in response to California’s dramatic cuts to education. Our district’s financial situation has deteriorated, and we now face what appears to be a prolonged period of flat or lower funding and, given our enrollment growth, less funding per student. In fact, our combined state, local and federal funding per student has fallen by $919, or seven percent, per student over the past three years.
In this environment, something has to give. Given our cost structure, modest increases in class size have to be part of the response. During the past four years, class sizes at the K-5 level have crept up. We have gone from an average class size K-5 of 19.9 to one of 22.2.
While nobody wants larger class sizes, it has helped us avoid things like cuts to elementary music, art and P.E., a shortening of the school year through furlough days, cuts to salary, and less money for benefit costs and professional development.
At the last board meeting, the board and staff discussed appropriate language around class size. In the end, we suspended our board policy on class size. We are working on more enduring language that reflects board and community values in this regard.
The board clearly values staffing levels that provide the best environment for learning. At about 22 in grades K-3 and 24 in 4-5, we are reaching the edge of board and staff comfort in terms of elementary class size.
As we have worked to adjust language in various places to this higher class size reality, communication within our community has not kept up. There are worries that we are headed to class sizes of 28 or 29 at the elementary level. This is not accurate, but as we have had conversations with teachers and others, we now understand how this misinterpretation could have been created. We will do a better job of communicating on this issue.
Over the past four years, we have had a strong working relationship with the Palo Alto Educators Association. Together we have worked hard to share interests and to create the best environment for teaching and learning in our schools and classrooms through an interest-based process of negotiation. I met with the PAEA president, Triona Gogarty, today. I am confident that we can continue to address challenges because everyone shares an interest in appropriate staffing ratios and the presence on our campus of support staff such as aides and other specialists who make education in Palo Alto special.
Thanks for your continued confidence in the staff of the district as your partner in educating your child(ren).
Sincerely,
Kevin Skelly, Ph.D.,
Superintendent
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