With fewer teachers and less funding, classroom sizes in the
county’s largest districts continue to rise and flirt with nearly
40 students per teacher, according to numbers released by the
Hollister and San Benito school districts.
With fewer teachers and less funding, classroom sizes in the county’s largest districts continue to rise and flirt with nearly 40 students per teacher, according to numbers released by the Hollister and San Benito school districts.
Without the funds to hire more teachers and disperse the kids, the schools are quickly reaching their capacity, San Benito High School Superintendent Stan Rose said.
“We are as full as we would like to see it,” he said. “It’s been a tight fit in a lot of classes this year but the teachers are doing an amazing job.”
At the high school, the average classroom size is 36.8 students per class – a 1.4 student increase from the year before and well above where the district would hope to be.
What that means, though, is that some classrooms have more than 40 students while others have few, Rose said. Overall, school has around 2,900 students.
Classroom sizes around 34 students would be better but to drop that much, the district would need an “infusion of capital,” Rose said.
“We can have as many as 40 students and others that will be decently small but in general, the most impacted subjects are English and math,” Rose said.
With statewide cuts, San Benito reduced its budget by about $1.5 million this year, while Hollister had to cut $6.5 million.
Some help may come soon for the school. Once the state completes its budget, Rose expects nearly $640,000 from federal funds, a number could change. Hollister is set to receive about $1 million from the feds.
“It’s probably going to be less than that at the end of the day,” Rose said, of the high school funds. “Right now, all we are getting is estimates so we will have to look at where our most impacted classrooms are to see where we can reduce some class sizes.”
The issue of class sizes doesn’t begin with the teachers or the students but with the school’s funding, Rose said.
“Class sizes is a real hot-button item for people but it points out a larger issue on how education is getting funded in the country,” he said.
Despite the possible changes that come with additional funding, teachers have to survive on what they have now and Rose expects them to, he said.
“It comes down to the really good, competent teacher who works hard on the relationship with the students,” he said.
With increased class sizes, that relationship gets harder and harder as the students get less individual attention.
At the Hollister School District, the classroom situation is just as dire and in a worse situation than prior years, Hollister School District Superintendent Gary McIntire said.
Some classes hang around 40 students, while others are in the 20s, according to documents released by the district.
The district had a class size reduction plan that affects the lower grades – keeping them around 20-1 – until this year when class sizes jumped to 31.62 students for a kindergarten through third grade classroom. Grades fourth through eighth have classrooms that range into the high 30s.
The average classroom size has dropped since the beginning of the school year, the when district hired four teachers to help alleviate some of the complaints from parents.
Overall, the district houses 5,570 students.
But the district isn’t where it hopes to be, McIntire said.
Since the 2008-09 school year, 12 more students are in each kindergarten through third-grade classroom. In grades fourth through fifth, classrooms are up to 36 students, a six-student increase from last year. In sixth through eighth grades, classrooms have gone from 30 students to more than 33 students.
Despite all of the budget issues and increase of students, the issues aren’t exclusive to the area.
“Everybody is dealing with the same thing,” Rose said.
