School cuts hurting students, teachers

The local school year now is in full swing, and it’s already apparent that the wide array of financial cutbacks are affecting the daily education of students, says a local teacher who also serves as the local chief of a teachers organization.

“We’re only six weeks into the new school year, but class sizes throughout Petaluma City Schools have gone up, and this has reduced the amount of time that teachers can spend individually with each student,” said Ted Russo, a physical education teacher at Kenilworth Junior High School, as well as the president of the Petaluma Federation of Teachers for PCS.

Russo says that the larger class sizes impact all grade levels, but particularly kindergarten through third-grade classes. Like last year, PCS’ K-3 classes need to average 20 students. Last year, however, they all had a maximum of 21 students, whereas this year, they can have as many as 25 students.

“K through 3 has really taken a hit,” he said. “Having two or three more little guys or girls in a class reduces the amount of one-on-one time (with teachers) that younger students, in particular, need. And when we set this kind of stage at the elementary-school level, students begin to fall behind, and it’s hard for them to catch up.”

The K-3 classes average two more students than last year, and the grades 4-12 classes average one additional student, said Steve Bolman, PCS’ deputy superintendent of business and administration.

Bolman and other district administrators, as well as principals, teachers and other staff members, are faced with the challenge of continuing to offer quality education despite larger class sizes and reductions in personnel, programs, and supplies.

Before the school year began, four teaching positions in K-3 and 10 in grades 4-12 were eliminated, thereby requiring larger class sizes and combined classes consisting of students in two different grades. District administrators never are sure how many students actually will be enrolled once classes begin. Fall enrollment was 19 students below the projection for the Petaluma Elementary School District and 78 lower expected for the Petaluma Joint Union High School District.

“Part of the reason is economic. One school, McKinley Elementary School, suffered the most, because rent at a nearby apartment complex increased,” Bolman said.

At the beginning of the school year, one full-time teacher was laid off at McNear Elementary School, and four class sections were eliminated at Casa Grande High School, where two teachers agreed to lose a section, one full-time teacher was reduced to 80 percent time and one teacher working 80 percent time went to 60 percent time.

Three Petaluma elementary schools were in danger of losing one teacher each because enrollment numbers were just short of estimates.

Grant and Valley Vista were in a position to lose one teacher each, but the district reached an agreement with the teachers union to prevent this from happening.

“McDowell also was in danger of losing a teacher, but used site funds to help fund the position,” Bolman said.

Also, this year, the monthly co-pay that teachers contribute for health coverage has risen from $87.19 to $189.10, while the amount for classified and management employees has risen from $87.19 to $224.14.

And teachers’ three staff development days were cut, resulting in a 1.6 percent reduction in pay.

“Those days were very important, because teachers met to make plans for the districts, grade levels and schools. We would discuss things such as how we can impact students who aren’t performing up to their grade levels,” Russo said.

Teachers now must work such important planning into their Wednesday schedules, when schools let out early, he said.

“But we lost three full staff development days, and it’s difficult to work what we did into our Wednesday schedules,” he said, adding that as a consequence, many teachers end up working extra hours without pay.

Bolman, like Russo, says that he is concerned about the impact of the recent cutbacks, but feels that it might take a while to more clearly know how they are affecting students’ education.

“I know that the state superintendent of education (Jack O’Connell) has expressed great concern that the gains that students have been achieving throughout the state will be affected by the cuts, but we have only had a few weeks of school, so I don’t know what the end result for us will be,” Bolman said.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)