COMBO CLASSES GET HIGH MARKS LOCALLY.

Byline: Karen Thacker Special to the Daily News

With state money coming in to reduce class sizes, many Lancaster schools are finding it pays to create combination or multi-grade classrooms.

Year-round schools started classes last week, and kindergarten and first-, first- and second-, second- and third-, and fourth- and fifth-grade class combinations are more common at several schools.

At New Vista Elementary School, they are rolling classes of 30 students into classes of 20, and the two numbers don't divide well.

``You can't hire half a teacher, so you form a combination,'' said New Vista office secretary Stephanie Robison.

The bulk of the school's expenses goes for teachers, Robison said.

``It's important not to have teachers with 10 kids in a class,'' she said. ``It would be nice to do that, but it's not cost-effective.''

The combination classes are planned for many schools, but are based on estimates from last year's enrollment, and schools always find surprises during the first month or so - children moving out, children moving in, and those in September who didn't realize school started during the summer.

Effective in January, the state offered to pay for class sizes to be reduced to 20 pupils for up to three grade levels of kindergarten through third grade.

Schools statewide have been juggling to adjust classes for the student population, hire teachers to meet the needs and find space for more classes.

Lancaster Elementary Principal Ann Hurd, a proponent of combination classes, has several multi-age classes this year. The classes also help the transition from having class sizes of 20 kids in third grade to 30 kids in fourth grade.

At Desert View, there are five combination classes planned.

In the Westside School District, officials are not against multiage classes, but such classes do put an additional burden of preparation on the teacher, Westside Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Lori Ordway-Pech noted.

``If the class is full of self-starters, it can be a nice thing for the teachers,'' Ordway-Pech said. ``It has its good sides and bad sides. I think there are children out there that do really well in that environment.''

Few Palmdale School District schools have combination classes, perhaps because of the Orchard Program, said Mesquite Principal Pat Berry.

The program is set up to have 25 children on the class list, but only 20 on track at any given time. Teachers must prepare in three-week teaching units, because while some of her children will go off track, five others will come back on.

``One teacher can teach more students this way,'' Berry said.

The Orchard Program, also known as Rainbow classes, is fully implemented at three Palmdale district schools, and most others have the program to some degree.

Joshua Hills Principal Mark Pospisil said his expected enrollment works out so combination classes should be unnecessary when the school year begins in a few weeks, but that some combinations should be expected with such class-size changes.

``Anyone that's been in this business long enough learns that the potential (for combination classes) is very high with the class-size changes,'' he said. ``That's what happens when the numbers go down.''