School Board Approves Class-Size Reduction Plan

The Manatee County School Board unanimously approved a plan to comply with state-mandated class sizes, but that may entail some multi-grade level classrooms.

During a school board regular meeting Monday, Chairman Robert Gause said even with the modification to the staffing allocation formula to reduce class sizes as called for in the action plan, the district may have to combine grades in some of the elementary school classrooms.

The Florida Department of Education required the action plan be submitted when it found the school district out of compliance with state statues dealing with class sizes.

According to a constitutional amendment the voters passed in 2002, schools must have no more than 18 students in pre-kindergarten through third-grade classrooms, no more than 22 students in fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms, and no more than 25 in every high school classroom.

Gause said if multi-grade classrooms are utilized to achieve compliance, he wanted to make sure the teachers receive adequate training.

School Superintendent Tim McGonegal said training multi-grade teachers has been in process for the past three years and “we’ve ramped it up the past year.”

“We don’t want to use multi-grade classrooms,” McGonegal said, “but we’re being forced to.

“Multi-grade classrooms are not in the best interest of the students,” he said.

Board Member Julie Aranibar said as a parent she has dealt with multi-grade classrooms twice.

“One was not a good experience,” Aranibar said, “but in the other (my children) excelled.”

By submitting this action plan, the school board will reduce the penalty the state education department levied from $257,794 to $64,499.

In January, the school district had its initial fine of more than $1.1 million reduced to the $257,794 amount when it documented in an appeal to the state all the reasons it could not comply to the class-size requirements.

The main reason for non-compliance was the unexpected increase of students at the start of the new school year.

In the action plan to be submitted to the state Tuesday, the school district will not only make adjustments to its staffing allocation formula, but will also employ additional co-teaching techniques in all the schools where appropriate.

In the middle and high schools, the plan called for implementing additional pay for teachers who teach extra sessions outside their regular hours.

McGonegal said after the meeting the district has already spent $4 million to comply with the class-size requirements, and will spend an additional $1 million for next year.

In another action, the school board unanimously approved an amendment to McGonegal’s employment contract.

McGonegal asked the board to delete the section that provides for a raise and to reduce his sick day reimbursement from 80 percent to 50 percent.

“We’re asking school district employees to make sacrifices from their benefits and pay,” he said. “Before I do that I feel I should make the same sacrifices.”