Layoffs at Elementary Schools Could Bump Up Average Class Size to 29 Students

elementary schools could see K-3 class sizes increase from an average of 22 students to 29 as a result of teacher layoffs due to ever-decreasing state funding, district officials said.

As of March 15, layoff warning notices have been sent to 54 teachers and counselors across the school district, including 38 teachers at the elementary school level, said Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Dan Stepenosky.

Seven secondary school counselors, one middle school social studies teacher, two middle school science teachers, two high school history teachers, one independent study teacher and a secondary school administrator also received preliminary layoff notices, he said. Two teachers on maternity leave were also issued notices.

Julie Atkinson, who has taught fifth grade at in Calabasas for eight years, recently received a notice for the third time.

“Though I was not surprised to receive one since I heard the slips could go as high as 10 years [of tenure with the district], it does not make it any easier to receive one,” Atkinson wrote in an e-mail. “We will keep the children’s best interest at heart and remain hopeful.”

Those who were issued notices of potential layoffs could receive pink slips on May 15 unless factors such as fundraising and early retirements play in favor of the district.

“It’s a traumatic time for people, and we hope to bring back as many teachers as we can,” Stepenosky said.

The best-case scenario, Stepenosky said, would be for Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed special election to be held in June with extensions of existing taxes earning approval from voters. The extensions would affect sales tax and vehicle licensing.

“That would change funding dramatically,” Stepenosky said. “We’d be looking at—if the extensions do not occur—a $3.5-million problem LVUSD can’t solve. If the elections happen and the taxes are extended, we’ll still take a $200,000 hit district-wide, but we can manage that better.”

LVUSD Chief Business Official Karen Kimmel said the shortfall would be closer to $3.8 million, as a result of a cut that reduced state funding by $349 per student for the 2011-12 school year. She said that other possible cuts include up to a 7-percent reduction in management and cuts in classified, or nonteaching, staff.

“If the measure passes and the shortfall is only $200,000 annually, we should be able to bring everybody back,” Kimmel said. “We still have some federal funding left to use next year that would cover the loss.”

Last year, all layoff warnings were rescinded due to teachers agreeing to pay cuts via furlough days. Stephanie Skidmore, who was a first-grade teacher at until taking maternity leave at the beginning of March, received a potential-layoff notice for the third consecutive year of her six-year career in the school district.

“I was expecting the layoff notice again this year, as I pay attention to what is happening with the district and state budget crisis,” Skidmore wrote in an e-mail. “Honestly, with a two-and-a-half-week-old baby, I haven’t given too much thought to the notice. I really hope that the state budget issues get resolved and it can be rescinded again. I love my job and I really hope to be back in the fall.”

Increasing class sizes in K-3 classrooms will be "exponentially more difficult," said Kelli Finigan, a first-grade teacher at Yerba Buena Elementary in Agoura Hills and an instructor in the district since 1996.

"It does seem like this district has cut everywhere they possibly can over the years to keep the teachers, but now they have no choice but to cut teachers and increase class sizes," Finigan said. "If we had 20 students we could give each student a lot more attention, but now that we're above that we're limited," said Finigan, who has 24 children in her class. "If we add six more students we'll be even more limited in the attention we can give."

Math, science and special-education teachers are not as at-risk because they address needed areas of competency, Stepenosky said.

“We have been aggressive in addressing area of competency. We’re not a straight ‘last hired, first fired’ district,” Stepenosky said. “We look to keep the right people in the right jobs while following the law.”

Already, a middle school science teacher given a layoff notice has been retained due to another’s retirement. So far, 21 educators over age 55 have opted to retire and are eligible for a district incentives package, which will pay annual installments of $2,500 in health benefits to each retiree until they turn 65, when they will be eligible for Medicare.

If 25 teachers retire, that payout would be raised to $5,000 a year.

Of the 21 teachers who have declared their retirement, 60 percent are from “layoff-impacted areas,” Steponosky estimated, including eight at the elementary level.

And of the approximately 550 teachers throughout the school district, 100 are above age 61; 61 1/2 is the optimum retirement age. Steponosky said the district would evaluate the retirement program in mid-April, and withdraw layoff notices if possible.

In the meantime, Kimmel said the district “will keep coming up with ideas to keep cuts away from the classroom.”

The campaign, announced Feb. 1, has raised only $180,000 in donations from community members toward a $1-million goal, Stepenosky said. The funds raised so far would bring back three teachers; the $1-million goal would save 16 teachers’ jobs.

Direct mailings were sent to 13,000 households in the LVUSD, including parents of students currently enrolled in the school district and up to five years ago.

Thus far, only residential households have been solicited, though companies such as Amgen, Bank of America, Boeing and Wells Fargo have pledged to match contributions by their employees.

Together Helping Education Foundation, a coalition of parent and community leaders that banded together to assist district fundraising, has not been able to provide assistance yet, Kimmel said, although members are to organize phone banks beginning April 25.

Aside from direct mail, the district has taken out full-page ads in and submitted guest op-eds to the Acorn, and schools Superintendent Donald Zimring has sent e-mails and made phone calls asking for community support.

“We’re doing everything we can because we don’t want to lose more teachers and counselors,” Kimmel said. “We think our school district is fabulous right now, and it’s very disheartening to think state funding is going to continue eroding and put us at risk of not providing amazing education.”

View the attached document for a list of teachers who have been issued layoff warning notices.