COSTS MOUNT FOR SMALLER CLASSES IN LOCAL GRADE SCHOOLS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The bills are adding up and the financial forecast looks grim. While class-size reduction has become public education's trend du jour, local school district administrators say it's not a miracle cure.

So it was with a measure of vindication and relief that local educators greeted a report last week from the state legislative analyst.

The study by the impartial government official concluded California should slow down its implementation of the class-size reduction program, which seeks to cut the student-teacher ratio from about 30 kids per classroom in primary grades to 20.

Gov. Pete Wilson and the state Legislature created the class-size reduction program as part of California's 1996-97 budget. Wilson has proposed the effort be expanded in the coming fiscal year. All together he has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for smaller classes in kindergarten and first, second and third grades.

Most California public schools have hired more teachers and have bought portable classrooms to cut first-grade classes to 20 students each. Some have done the same for second grade, but few have embarked on kindergarten and third grades.

The reason for such fiscal caution is simple, superintendents and district administrators say. This is not free money. It's not manna from Sacramento. In short, the program doesn't pay for itself.

Art Clark, assistant superintendent of business services for the Saugus Union School District, has estimated the district will come up $408,000 short in the 1997-98 school year if it continues its current class-size reductions in first and second grades.

That deficit would jump to $450,799 in the 1998-99 school year if the Saugus school system remains on its current course, Clark projected. At that rate, he said, Saugus schools certainly can't afford to pare down the number of children in kindergarten and third-grade classes.

In a nutshell, the problem is that the state allots $650 per student for a school district to implement class-size reduction. ``Most school districts are saying they need $800 to $850 per child to break even on this program,'' Clark said.

Superintendent J. Michael McGrath said the Newhall School District, like other public school systems statewide, has scrambled to hire teachers from a pool of candidates that is far too small to meet the demand - even though districts may hire people with only emergency teaching credentials who can complete the requirements for regular state certification as they work.

Another factor is the statewide shortage of the portable classrooms needed when, for instance, 60 first-graders require three classrooms instead of two.

``We don't think there are enough qualified teachers. We don't have any more room on our campuses for more portables, and we can't afford the deficit,'' McGrath said. ``This district will not add another grade level. We will stick with first and second.''

To find experienced teachers, the Newhall district has hired instructors from other states and Canada.

In the report issued last week, the legislative analyst found that about 18,400 teachers were hired across California specifically for the class-size reduction program. Overall, this group had less teaching experience, fewer qualifications and a lower skill level than their predecessors, the survey found.

To implement the program in four grades - kindergarten, first, second and third - would require that about 16,500 more teachers be hired across California, the legislative analyst estimated.

While many young, inexperienced teachers were hired at entry-level wages in the Castaic Union School District, a union contract calls for all local teachers to get periodic raises, according to Jim Estes, director of business and personnel for the district. Even if nothing else changed from one year to the next, the same teachers would earn more money, Estes said, in what he calls one of the hidden costs of class-size reduction.

In Castaic, increased enrollment is a virtual certainty in the 1997-98 school year, Estes said.

In the current school year, Estes noted, Castaic spent about $240,000 to buy five portable classroom buildings and was reimbursed by the state for $150,000.

Estes said the district plans to reduce second-grade classes to 20 students each - meaning more teachers and more portable classrooms will be needed.

Sulphur Springs School District lowered class sizes in first and second grades at all seven of its schools, Superintendent Robert Nolet said.

``We're taking the position that we still think this is a good idea. We think it is going to make a difference for kids,'' Nolet said. ``But we will not be expanding the program unless the state addresses the shortfalls.''

So far, the district has had to add 36 portable classroom buildings to its schools to deal with class-size reduction, he said.

``Last year, 18 percent of our classrooms were portables,'' Nolet said. ``This year, 34 percent of our classrooms across the district are relocatables.''

More janitors are needed to clean more classrooms, Nolet said. Utility bills also are higher. It takes the same amount of electricity and natural gas to light, heat and cool a classroom whether there are 20 or 30 kids in it, Nolet said.

The state paid $25,000 each for 16 of the new portables, although buying and installing the buildings cost about $55,000 each, Nolet said. Sulphur Springs got no aid toward purchasing 20 portables, he said.

``We can't keep running a deficit,'' Nolet said.

``Another thing that's an exacerbation in this valley is that (enrollments) are growing,'' Nolet said. ``That in itself presents facility problems. That in itself presents staffing problems.''

The same is true in the 11-school Saugus district.

``We are experiencing rapid growth on top of this class-size reduction,'' Clark said.

Next month, the district will accept delivery of more portables to implement second-grade class-size reduction. By then, 21 double classroom trailers will have been added, Clark said.

``We're getting to a point now where some of our campuses are becoming overcrowded with portables,'' Clark said.

McGrath said he bought 30 portables to create the smaller first- and second-grade classes in his district. The state only paid for 22 of them, he said.

In the 1997-98 school year, McGrath estimated, Newhall's class-size reduction program will run at a $300,000 deficit.

If the state doesn't boost the per-pupil reimbursement, McGrath said, the district may have to consider other options to house its ever-growing student body and continue the 20-to-1 ratio in the primary grades. ``We're going to have to look at multitrack, year-round education. We're going to have to look at bond issues,'' he said.