BACK TO (GRADE) SCHOOL SIXTH-GRADERS BEING MOVED TO SAVE MONEY.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Westside Union School District's lower-grade classes will get bigger, 50 teaching posts will be eliminated and sixth-graders will move back to elementary school campus in cost-cutting moves.

Drawing opposition from parents, classes in kindergarten through third grade will go up to 30 pupils - up from the present maximum of 20 - for the next school year, a step that would save more than $705,000.

The bigger classes will free up classroom space for the sixth-graders. Moving sixth-graders from middle schools back to elementary schools would save Westside from having to build new schools for at least another two years, school officials say.

``We have two crises,'' trustee Gwen Farrell said after last week's school board vote. ``One is fiscal and one is facilities. This alleviates the problem with both of them.

``This will put our budget where two years out, in 2006-07, we'll be in the black and over (the) 3 percent (budget reserve requirement). This will help give us time to build facilities. We are five years behind in our growth plan.''

The board voted 3-2 at Tuesday's meeting to make the cuts. The dissenting votes were cast by board president Marty Meeden and trustee Deborah Rutkowski-Hines.

Meeden, Rutkowski-Hines and fellow trustees James Brink and Christine LeBeau are teachers.

``I just couldn't vote for that philosophically as a teacher,'' said Meeden. ``It would impact the budget otherwise, but I couldn't vote for it.''

Meeden teaches in the Palmdale School District, which increased class sizes in kindergarten through third grade in 2003-04 as a cost-cutting move.

``I have 27 in my class. It can go up 30. It's a big difference, especially with the needs so many of the kids come in with, the skills they need to remediate. You don't have much time to get to all the kids the way they need to be,'' Meeden said.

Rutkowski-Hines said that, when she ran for office, she promised to make cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. She did say, though, that the board majority's vote was the fiscally wise thing to do.

``(Smaller class sizes) was clearly a priority of the community and after long and torturous thought, I decided that my job was to represent the constituents, so I voted the way the parents wanted the vote to go because I felt that was my duty as an elected official,'' Rutkowski-Hines said.

More than 50 parents attended Tuesday's meeting in opposition to the bigger class sizes.

Farrell said shifting sixth-graders to elementary schools will provide space at the cramped middle schools.

``That means a third of the population at Joe Walker and Hillview will be reduced. Instead of 1,400 students, there will be only 900 to 1,000,'' Farrell said.

Farrell said not making the cuts would have opened the possibility of Los Angeles County appointing a monitor to watch the district's spending.

``Had we not done that, the county would be parked on our door,'' Farrell said.

For a second year in a row, Westside this year said it might not be able to meet its financial obligations over the next several years.

The state this year allowed Westside to maintain a budget reserve lower than the mandated 3 percent of spending as long as it restored the full 3 percent by July 1. The reserve now stands at 2.45 percent.

District officials are projecting they will be able to meet the 3 percent reserve requirement in 2005-06 but fall short in 2006-07 by more than $650,000.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com