New Teachers' Contract OKs Larger Class Sizes

With little fanfare and a nearly empty public seating area, the trustees of the Benicia Unified School District accepted a new contract with the Benicia Teachers Association Wednesday night, that raises the teacher student ratio at some grade levels but avoids furlough days.

Deborah Casey, the chief teacher negotiator and a seventh-grade math teacher at Benicia Middle School said the contract had three main components. 

It adds safety language to deal with issues related to laboratory sciences classes; it increases class size for kindergarten, second and third grades; and it allows for reopening the contract if there are major state revenue shortfalls.

Kindergarten classes in Benicia are limited now to 22 students per teacher. The new contract ups the kindergarten class size to 24. Second- and third-grade classes now are capped at 24 students. The new contract raises the cap to 26 students for the second and third grades.

"I think it's a good deal for us," said Carleen Maselli, president of Benicia Teachers Association.  "With what's going on in the state, a lot of districts are taking furlough days and big class size increases. Our K - 3 class size increases are temporary."

Maselli said teachers are "vastly relieved" by the agreement.