TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

District: Class Shrink Is Inviable

ADVERTISEMENT

By RONNIE BLAIR rblair@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - School officials say class-size requirements scheduled to take effect next year are impractical considering the financial strain school districts are facing across the state.

"I believe Florida is going to have to revisit that or they'll bankrupt the state," Superintendent Heather Fiorentino said at a candidates' forum last week.

Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2000 that limits class sizes to 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in grades four through eight and 25 in high school core classes such as English and math.

Those limits have been phased in over the years and right now schools use a schoolwide average to arrive at the right number.

Next year, though, the amendment is supposed to be fully implemented, meaning individual classrooms can't go over the limit.

School officials say that means if a kindergarten class had 18 students and a new student enrolled, the school would have to hire another teacher and split up the class.

Full implementation originally was scheduled to take effect his year, but the Legislature agreed to postpone it a year. As school districts face budget cuts, they want to see the requirement postponed one more year and the amendment itself possibly revisited.

Fiorentino said schoolwide averages are the best way to deal with class sizes because the logistics of classroom-by-classroom limits are unrealistic.

Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, said whether the Legislature agrees to a postponement is almost irrelevant. Budget constraints will keep school districts from meeting the requirements regardless, Blanton said last week at a Pasco County School Board workshop.

Fiorentino said at last week's forum that small class sizes are important for students in kindergarten through second grade, but less so for older grades.

Stephen Donaldson, a Democrat who is challenging Fiorentino in the Nov. 4 election for superintendent, said he voted in favor of the class-size amendment.

He, too, said Tallahassee has no choice but to put off implementation from year to year until the budget improves.

"I see us as averaging the next few years," Donaldson said.

State Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, said he supports finding a way to give schools more flexibility. Legg said he likes a proposal that would require schools to be at the class-size average at the year's first official student count, but would let schools add a few more students to a classroom after that without the need to create a new classroom.

"The current class-size amendment the way it is structured is too rigid," Legg said.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Send letters of no more than 150 words with your name, address and telephone number to:

Letters to the Editor

38112 15th Ave., Zephyrhills FL 33542

E-mail submissions to

jscullin@tampatrib.com or mmccoy@tampatrib.com.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT