ELECTIONS LAS VIRGENES SCHOOLS : $12-Million Proposition Would Restore Electives, Reduce District Class Sizes

Responding to state funding cuts, the Las Virgenes Unified School District has placed a $12-million tax measure on the Nov. 5 ballot to reduce class sizes and restore electives at the district’s 12 schools.

Under Proposition K, all parcels of property would be levied $150 annually for four years, raising about $3 million a year for the district serving about 10,000 students in Calabasas, Agoura Hills and surrounding areas.

Proposition K supporters said that money would restore programs such as music and remedial reading that were slashed from this year’s budget, and help ease overcrowding by adding teachers and classes at junior highs and high schools.

Andrew Glassman, chairman of the Committee for Quality Education, said the district has lost 31% of its state funding since the 1984-85 school year. Over the last three years, he said, the district has cut nearly $3 million in staff and programs, including more than $1 million in this year’s $37-million budget.

Those cuts mean more students in every class and fewer electives from which to choose, Glassman said, adding: “We’d like to reverse those cuts and reverse the ratio of students to teachers.”

The measure needs a two-thirds majority to pass and cannot be extended beyond four years without another vote.

Opponents of the tax contend that the district’s financial problems are of its own making and complain that district residents already are overtaxed.

“We’re not about to give them any more money to mishandle,” said Diane Venable, a member of the Committee for Excellent Education, created to fight the pro-tax Committee for Quality Education.

Once the current budget crisis in Sacramento passes, Venable predicted, the state will restore funding to school districts, making the local tax obsolete.

“We feel more confident in the state than the district does,” she said. “The state can’t just sit idly by and watch our school districts go down the drain.”

Senior citizens could apply for exemption from the tax, and contiguous residential parcels under one owner would be taxed as a single lot.

Money from the tax would be used to rehire an undetermined number of the 30 teachers and support staff laid off in the budget crunch. Lower-grade elementary classes would be reduced by four students, upper elementary by two, junior high by three and high school by four, officials said. The average class size in the district is 32.

A seventh period would be added at junior highs and about 50 elective classes--some new, some restored--would be offered at the district’s two high schools. At elementary schools, classes such as music and art would be added.