17 TEACHERS IN THE VALLEY REASSIGNED LAUSD INCREASES SIZES OF CLASSES IN GRADES 4-12.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

Enrollment shifts and a new class-size policy have led to the loss of 17 teachers at San Fernando Valley schools, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Wednesday.

The 17 teachers are among 70 districtwide who have been reassigned to other, more-crowded schools or to jobs as substitutes. The reassignments were based on new enrollment figures that show more students in middle and high schools and fewer students in elementary grades.

The reassigned teachers are the latest casualty of a new district policy that added two students to each class in grades four through 12. The policy, adopted by the school board in April to help close a massive budget shortfall, has had the biggest impact on physical education, social science, science, math and foreign-language classes.

School district officials said their hands are tied.

``We were forced into this by a bad budget year, and the board and Superintendent (Roy) Romer and everybody down here deeply regret the need to do this,'' said Tom Boysen, the district's chief operating officer. ``From a policy perspective, the board would like to reverse it but it's a costly proposition, one that also has space implications.''

The school board plans to consider rescinding the class-size policy when it meets Nov. 12. But even if the measure passes, it won't take effect until the next school year, starting in July 2003.

Caprice Young, the school board president, said that while she sympathizes with teachers who have as many as 49 students, class-size reduction is easier said than done.

``Every single person on the board wants to reduce class sizes. The question is, logistically, how to get it done?''

Although the policy has had a detrimental effect on many campuses, it also had unintended benefits. Young noted that increasing class sizes has freed up space at some schools, allowing them to enroll more neighborhood children who might have had to be bused to less-crowded campuses across the city.

Official enrollment figures won't be released until the end of the month, but district administrators predicted an increase of 12,000 students, in kindergarten through 12th grade, to about 749,000. An enrollment bubble that affected the elementary grades is now hitting middle and high schools, and a preliminary enrollment tally shows a decline of 2,500 students in elementary grades, Boysen said.

At Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills, classes remain ``monstrously large,'' said Jay Gussin, an eighth-grade science teacher who is teaching six classes with 240 students total. Two of his classes have 40 students each.

``Teaching is not 40 kids in a class,'' Gussin said. ``It's warehousing; we call it 'sardine-ing.'''

Parents were frustrated, too.

Danae Brockett, a West Hills parent whose child attends Columbus Middle School in Canoga Park, used the word ``mob'' to describe a physical- education class with 57 students. She plans to address the board during the Nov. 12 meeting.

``I understand they have to fix the budget; I get that,'' an exasperated Brockett said. ``But sacrificing education isn't the way to fix the budget.''

School board member Jose Huizar, who voted against increasing class sizes earlier this year, said the district can find the money to reverse the increase.

``I still think it was a terrible decision,'' Huizar said. ``I get calls and e-mail daily from teachers and parents who are concerned that their kids are not getting full attention from their teachers. I hear about not enough seats, classes as big as 40 and 50, and that is unacceptable.''