District Adjusts to Meet Class Size Mandates

At an August school board work session, Superintendent Lori White said she had given her principals and schools a clear message: Do not go over class size requirements.

“They need to be prepared to make class size because we can’t afford to not make it,” White said at the meeting.

Last week, the Florida Department of Education released class-size numbers and said Sarasota County Schools met the requirements.

In 2002, Florida voters passed the amendment designed to limit the size of Florida classrooms.

The law was implemented gradually and became stricter. From the 2002-03 school year to 2005-06, class-size averages had to be met district wide.

From 2006-2009, schools were required to meet the average number. In 2010, each individual classroom had to meet the requirement or the district would face a financial penalty.

Last year the district did. It was fined more than $400,000 but that amount was reduced 75 percent after the district submitted a plan to FDOE for fixing the problem.

Class-Size Requirements:

• 18 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 3
• 22 students in grades 4 through 8
• 25 students in grades 9 through 12.

White said this year the district did not believe the state would allow a corrective plan to be submitted.

"They are not going to accept the plan," White said. "They’ll say, ‘Well you should have done that this year.' "

White said the district was getting stricter with schools because the state Legislature voted to double the penalty. Districts are penalized for each hour a student is in a class over the allowed number.

"Last year we paid some penalties, because we couldn't afford new teachers," said school board member Jane Goodwin.

Al Weidner, the district's deputy chief financial planning officer, said some school districts completely ignored the law. "The Legislature felt that they needed to increase the penalty, because there were some districts that were not even going to try to be in compliance in class-size," Weidner said.

Sarasota County Schools tried to meet class size in 2010 but chose not to in all instances because it would be more costly than paying the penalties.

If a class were one or two kids over, the district could pay the penalty or hire an additional teacher and split the classroom.

The district saved more than $1 million last year by following that model.

Goodwin said they did have to hire more teachers this year to meet class size but that it was a very small number.

Other class size remedies the district came up with were combo classrooms in elementary schools.

John Zoretich, executive director of elementary schools, said there has not been a huge increase in the number of these classes since the amendment, but that the numbers have gone up.

"We’ve used combo classes in the past, but not to this degree," Zoretich said.

Combo classes are when two grades have been combined into one class. Zoretich said the district has 20 combo classes of the 853 elementary school classrooms. That is just more than 2 percent.

In 2010, high schools were the key contributor to the district's class-size penalty. White said the district did not want to tell a student that he or she couldn't take a class needed for graduation just to meet class size.

This year the Legislature trimmed down it so-called "core curriculum" classes by not requiring class size to be met in foreign language and AP courses.

"That was the bone that they threw us," Goodwin said. "That they are going to give you many exceptions to the narrow rule."

Weidner said the law has still caused headaches in high schools. "If we have a student that comes in and needs a particular class, that might put us over," he said.

"What it does, it eliminates choices for students to be able to get their credit when they need them. [The Legislature] really has hurt the students being able to get the classes that they might in fact need based on their schedules."

"I think the class-size amendment was well intended, but like many things, it has unintended consequences," Goodwin said. "It is difficult in this economic time for school districts to abide by this."