"Can I have more than 28 students in my kindergarten class?"

Dear Teachers,


The Union office is getting calls about class sizes for kindergartens and previously 20:1 grade levels and I would like to clarify this issue. The Union will be putting out a flyer concerning this issue at the end of the week that should be on your union bulletin board on Friday or Monday. 


For staffing purposes the District has used 28 students per class in grades K-3; however, per the contract, class sizes may go higher than 28.  If students enroll in our schools the District has a policy of "not turning parents and their students away." 


The District has said that it will respect the contract language of 32 for K, 30 for grades 1-3 and 32 for grades 4-6.   If unexpectedly a school has a surge in enrollment and a class goes over contract language, District administrators will work with the school to quickly address the class size issue. For clarification, class sizes during CSR have never been included in our salary agreement because they fall under class maximums.


The class size of 28 falls under the Class Size Reduction (CSR - 20:1) program and is less than the class maximums in our contract, therefore, the District can staff up to the class maximums without having to negotiate with the teachers union. It was the school board that voted on staffing class sizes at 28 in the Spring of 2011 and it is not part of the certificated salary agreement dated June 7th of 2011. Having the ABC School Board vote for a staffing ratio lower than the contract maximums is not typical for California school boards or District administrators. Most school districts are pink slipping teachers and negotiating to raise their class sizes over their current class maximums. In MOST districts the CSR program is long gone and teachers are now forced to increase their contract maximums to save the jobs of those who have been pink slipped.  The ABC District Administrators have been exceptional in understanding that the current fiscal disaster California schools are facing is not a time to use heavy handed negotiating tactics which are common practice in Education. 


For example, LAUSD gave out 5000 pink slips and have not hired back over 1,450 teachers and health and human services professionals. Your ABCFT Union doesn't think that pink slips are good for morale and the lives of teachers and we will do what we can to save as many jobs as possible. We are fortunate that our District office doesn't use pink slips as a way to get concessions from teachers at the bargaining table. That is a dirty way to do school business and only results in disrupting the learning environment for teachers and students. Who is suffering in LAUSD? I think it's the teachers and the students who show the scars of bad administrative decisions.


Have a good week!


In Solidarity,




Ray Gaer
President ABC Federation of Teachers