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Hernando Today

Classes Destined For Upsizing

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: March 8, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - In this economy, downsizing is the norm.

When it comes to education, downsizing often means upsizing classes, and that's the strategy the Hernando County school district is taking to help meet a $25 million budget shortfall.

The ratio of students to teachers will increase across all grade levels, a move that will help save nearly $7.5 million. The school board approved the measure in principle during a workshop last month but it must be voted on officially as part of the 2009 budget.

In kindergarten, there will now be an average of 19 students to every teacher, up from 17.

For first- through third-grades, the number of students per teacher climbs from 17 to 19.

The fourth- and fifth-grade ratios go from 21 to 23 students per teacher; middle school jumps from 22 to 25; and high school from 25 to 28.

Those aren't the numbers of students that will be in every class. Rather, principals will have to shift teachers and students around to ensure their respective school meets the ratio. The district will cut 129 teaching positions, something officials have said will be achieved mostly through attrition.

The district still has to meet the class size requirements mandated by the state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2002, said Heather Martin, the district's director of business services.

And because that amendment is only being enforced based on a school-wide average until 2010, districts that trim staff still have some degree of flexibility. Joint resolutions have been proposed in the House and Senate that would make the school-wide average method of class-size measurement permanent.

But as for increasing student-teacher ratios, Martin said: "Bottom line, it's more students in each classroom. (Schools) are going to have to provide the same thing they do now but with less resources."

Superintendent Wayne Alexander acknowledged that the strategy is one the district would rather not employ, just like other "painful" cost-saving measures such as trimming the number of reading and math coaches or paring the allocations to magnet programs.

But Alexander said he was confident that education here would not suffer, and that the savings makes the move worthwhile to the point of being, as he put it, "a no-brainer."

"I think we're fortunate to have some great teachers, and I think the addition of one or two students per classroom will not have an impact on our teachers' ability to teach and our kids' ability to learn," Alexander said.

"We have difficult jobs and it will be difficult in the next year," said Central High principal Dennis McGeehan. "We'll do the best we can."

The main goal, principals said, will be to ensure that core academics classes - reading, math and science - don't get large enough to compromise the learning environment.

That's especially important for remedial classes where students need more attention, said Toni Ann Noyes, principal at West Hernando Middle School.

"We will look at students' needs individually and place them individually," Noyes said.

"Our focus is, if students need extra help in reading and math, they get that," said Suncoast Elementary principal Jean Ferris. "That's going to remain the priority."

Often, that means shifting more students to non-core classes, such as band and physical education. One factor in the shuffling will be the physical spaces that schools have to work with. Some classrooms aren't designed to handle more than 15 students.

That makes for a giant, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle at a school like Springstead High School. The school has a projected enrollment next year of nearly 1,200 students, and will almost certainly have fewer than the 134 teachers it has now.

"It's a lot of stress for everyone," said Springstead principal Susan Duval. "We're going to do the very, very best we can to balance our classes out."

Duval called the need to increase the ratio "unfortunate" but "a reality."

"I believe our teachers will handle whatever comes their way," she said.

That Hernando has top-notch teachers is a sentiment Hernando Classroom Teachers Association President Joe Vitalo agrees with wholeheartedly.

But even the best teachers can only handle so much, Vitalo said, and the cuts are "starting to impact the classroom."

While the goal is to keep core academic class sizes at a reasonable level, larger class sizes - and reductions in the number of reading and math coaches that are also part of the budget - will almost certainly result in less individualized attention needed to ensure that student's achieve the "fullest success," Vitalo said.

"Some kids need to be in a larger class, some need to be in a smaller class," Vitalo said. "We're losing that flexibility to decide."

School board Chairwoman Dianne Bonfield agreed it's not ideal. But she recalled her time as a teacher at Westside Elementary when she had 33 students in her first-grade class. She said she's confident core academic classes won't grow that large.

"We managed, and the kids learned to read," Bonfield said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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