A.V. HIGH SCHOOLS TO BUDGET $300,000 TO CUT CLASS SIZES.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

In line with recent legislation mandating smaller ninth-grade classes, district high schools will be spending nearly $300,000 annually to create more classes for 6,800 English and algebra students.

The legislation provides $135 per student to help make changes, but that will not cover the total cost of hiring two dozen additional teachers for the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

``It's not going to be easy. It's not a question of just hiring teachers. We got big problems with facilities, but we're working on that,'' school board member Bill Olenick said. ``We are going to implement it as best we can. It's an encroachment on general funds. It's something that goes hand in hand with growth.''

The board unanimously approved the class-size reduction last week for English 9 classes, and for algebra and interactive math classes.

The change for the English courses will take place at the beginning of the second semester of the current school year, and the smaller math classes will start in the 1999-2000 term.

Each school will be asked to define ``specific performance improvements'' by students that can be expected as a result of these reduced class sizes, and results will be reported to the board each August, a district staff report said.

Freshmen English classes now have a student-to-teacher ratio of 30-to-1, while the algebra and interactive math classes have a 32-to-1 ratio, the staff report said.

``This is an opportunity for teachers to assess youngsters' skills and abilities and work on them on an individual basis,'' Superintendent Robert Girolamo said. ``To us it's a real opportunity to get young people to perform better and give teachers an opportunity to work with kids.''

The district's schools are overcrowded, but space will be gained by using more classrooms for six periods rather than five, the staff report said.

``We are crowded. That's a reality. We will get by by maximizing classrooms on each campus. We can do it next year and the year after,'' Girolamo said.

Teachers union President Laurie Brown said teachers favor class-size reduction but are concerned whether qualified instructors can be found in time and whether there was enough room on campus.

``We want to make sure it is properly done so students are not affected in a negative way,'' said Brown, president of the Antelope Valley Teachers Association. ``It's a wonderful thing to reduce class sizes in English and math. There may be bumps in the road that we prefer to smooth out before it happens.''

Brown said finding good math teachers is difficult, a concern if schools have to meet performance targets.

``The concern is we don't want to have substitutes in there that may not be qualified. We would like to see more experienced teachers teaching courses,'' Brown said. ``Teachers will have to prove that reducing class sizes works. Our concern is if they use testing for proof, for students who had substitutes or brand new teachers, their scores may not be that high. People may think reducing class sizes does not work.''

In addition, if classrooms are used for all six periods, teachers will not have a place for their prep time, which they use to prepare for the next day and do other things like call parents, Brown said.