Leaner staffing to raise classroom sizes

By Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | 2:09 p.m.

Classroom sizes at Boulder City's four schools are expected to be larger next year after the Clark County School District cut staffing to 97 percent of normal.

Principals said they have worked to stay within a leaner budget next year in various ways, but all said they are certain teachers will have more students in their classrooms.

The reduced staffing is part of $253 million in cuts the School District made for 2009-10, which begins July 1, to help make up for budget shortfalls.

Boulder City schools were able to make the adjustments through attrition, so no teachers were laid off.

"We are continuing to do the best we can with what we have," said Martha P. King Elementary Principal Lee Esplin.

King will lose three teachers at the end of this school year — two are moving to Mannion Middle School in Henderson and another is becoming a counselor at a high school.

The school will hire only one replacement, Esplin said.

Class sizes will go from 24 to 25 students in the third grade, from 28 to 32 in fourth grade and will remain about the same, 30, in fifth grade, he said.

Those numbers could vary, depending on how many students move away or transfer in over the summer, he said.

At Boulder City High, a retiring science teacher will not be replaced, and the school lost a business teacher and a health instructor, Principal Ann Nelson said.

As a result, science classes will be larger, the AP chemistry class will not have a lab and P.E. teachers will now teach health, she said.

Another eight hours a week of staffing was lost in the front office, which will affect those services, she said.

At Garrett Middle School, Principal Jamey Hood expects class sizes to go up, though she won't know how much until fall scheduling is completed.

The middle school lost the equivalent of one position. Five classes that teachers led during their preparation periods for extra pay also were eliminated.

Hood said she is waiting to see whether she will be able to fill a position that would be split between social studies and science. She may gain a teacher who wants to transfer to Boulder City, but it is hard to find teachers who can take on both subjects, she said.

Even with the cuts, Hood said, Boulder City students will probably find themselves in smaller classes than those elsewhere in Clark County.

The first- and second-grade classes at Andrew P. Mitchell Elementary, which should have 16 students, will have 20 to 21 students in the fall, Principal Louise Varvar said.

Because of the cuts, she was not able to hire a student teacher who wanted to stay at Mitchell, she said.

However, the tuition-based full-day kindergarten, which was having trouble finding enough parents willing to pay, will return and has openings for more students, she said.

The school will also be able to keep music, P.E. and art, but teachers will not have extra money to buy supplies for their classrooms, Varvar said.

All of the principals said their schools are planning to do without extras next year, such as field trips or assemblies that have any cost associated with them.

Mitchell will be able to keep its remediation program only because of money raised by the Parent Advisory Committee, Varvar said.

King has had to begin charging parents for the after-school program in critical thinking, Fast Forward, Esplin said.

Garrett will probably do without high-tech teaching aids that helped the school, which failed to make adequate yearly progress on federal standards in 2006-07, improve, Hood said.

Esplin said Sempra Energy has asked the schools to submit applications for grant money for math, science and technology programs, and that might help.

The principals are trying to keep a positive attitude.

"I think we'll get through this," Varvar said. "It would be nice to have another teacher and keep class sizes the way they're intended to be. But we're all thankful we have our positions."