Patience Is Key to Success in Cutting Back Size of Classes

California has the golden opportunity to rise from the ashes of decades-long “worst-class-size-in-the-nation” status with the newly adopted budget providing the funds to release schools from the bondage of overcrowding. We applaud the governor’s action and pledge to spend Orange County’s share of those billion dollars as effectively and judiciously as if they were our own personal funds.

The dollars allotted to reduce primary classes to 20 will not cover the total cost, and most Orange County districts have no spare rooms in which to put the children. The “siren call” is attractive; however, with the reality of many schools already built to capacity, it is just that--an invitation some cannot immediately accept.

Decades of increasing enrollment, more than 2% per year, and the fact that building funds for new schools have not kept up with that increase have created a monster. Offering a gourmet meal to one who has a stomach shrunken from years of starvation is no overnight panacea, no immediate solution to the nutrition problem.

In that analogy, patience is not only a virtue, it is a necessity. So it is with countywide efforts to reduce class size. Enrollment in September 1995 K-3 countywide was 141,312, a growth of 2.4% over the previous year. Average class size was 28.5. To reduce the class average countywide to 20 would require a minimum of almost 200 available classrooms, or approximately 10 elementary schools. Across the county, we have 348 elementary schools; we need 10 more and, of course, they must be in the right geographical locations.

If growth projections are somewhere near accurate, we will welcome 3,392 more primary children in the 1996-97 school year. That’s another 170 classrooms, bringing the total to 370 needed across the county, and hopefully, evenly distributed from Capistrano to Cypress, Los Alamitos to Laguna Beach.

Given the massive and logistic constraints, are the schools yelling “uncle” or “Governor, please”? Are boards of education complaining, with Midas, when his daughter turned to gold? Too much of a good thing? Never!

Several districts already have opened their year-round schools with 20 per class, and others will have the plan in operation by opening day in September. Still others are scratching for space, seeking movable classrooms and places to put them. Within the recent past, virtually every district site was “built out.” Ten-acre elementary sites housed the maximum buildings. The state standard of 960 square feet per classroom was maintained with minimum playground areas; elementary children need room for physical education and to play too.

Manufacturers of movable classrooms report orders well beyond their ability to produce in time for fall installation. And, of course, it is not a simple matter of bringing in trailers full and dumping them at the curb. Concrete pads must be poured, complete with utility lines, state inspections and Division of State Architecture permits. Purchase orders for desks, chairs, maps and other instructional materials must be developed, and staffing needs are among the top priorities. The oft-experienced line seems appropriate: Most people think complex problems have simple solutions, and they’re wrong!

No one wants smaller classes more than those on the front line: the teachers. Long-suffering parents with children in overcrowded classes rejoice at the prospect of more individual attention and greater achievement. Teachers also know that there is no greater frustration than trying to teach without materials in an inadequate environment. School board members and district superintendents are responding to the need as prudently and fiscally responsible as possible.

As with so much in life, timing is everything. Our schools will reach the goal. Again, patience is not only a virtue, it’s a necessity.