Sizing Up the Situation : Vaughn, Fenton Charter Schools Immediately Reduce 1st-, 2nd-Grade Class Sizes to Qualify for New Funds

PACOIMA — With just 20 students and more adrenaline than usual, Roxanne Correa started the new academic year Wednesday at the city’s first public elementary school to shrink first-grade classes.

The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center had already planned for smaller classes this year, but plowed ahead even more quickly in response to Gov. Pete Wilson’s pledge to infuse millions of dollars into public schools that can pull off a 20-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

“I always dreamed of having a small class, but I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime as a teacher,” said Correa, who has handled mostly classes of more than 30 students during her 20-year career.

Last month, the state Legislature ratified Wilson’s plan by allocating $771 million, or $650 per pupil, for schools reducing first- and second-grade class sizes, and either kindergarten or third grade, by February.

But Vaughn was well ahead of the governor. Last year, teachers and administrators at the year-round charter school had agreed to decrease the size of first and second grades from 27 to 23 students for the 1996-97 school year. After Wilson announced his cash incentive in May, administrators at Vaughn quickly cut their number to 20 for first grades. The school also plans to scale down the second and third grades by September, said executive director Yvonne Chan.

Vaughn is not alone in its foresight. Fenton Charter School in Lake View Terrace, also year-round, will reduce class sizes from kindergarten through third grade by Aug. 15, said co-director Joe Lucente. The school has already hired nine new teachers and ordered portable classrooms, Lucente said.

“As a charter school, one of our goals was to reduce our class size to 25 to 1, so this was even better for us,” Lucente said. “We figured that the faster we moved the better chance we had at having quality teachers.”

Because Fenton and Vaughn are independent charter schools, they can move faster than most schools in the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District.

The LAUSD is planning to reduce class size in first and second grades only, officials said. The effort may be complicated by a court order known as the Rodriguez consent decree that calls for the district to equalize spending at all of its schools. Recommendations for shrinking classes will be presented to the school board at its meeting Monday. The district also will hold an informational meeting for the public at 1 p.m. today at district headquarters.

Once again, charter school advocates noted, an opportunity for change is underscoring the huge district’s shortcomings and the advantages of smaller, independent campuses.

“The beauty is we envisioned this happening and we knew what we were going to do so we got the ball rolling,” Chan said.

Donning one of Vaughn’s official plaid uniforms, Chan held court at the school’s outdoor lunch area Wednesday morning for more than 60 parents, explaining in Spanish and English why and how officials at the school split the 180 first-graders into classes of 20 students. Extra advice for teachers from both peers and administrators will help guide them in dealing with smaller classes, Chan said.

“While it’s wonderful to have this reduction, your style changes a bit,” said Annamarie Francois, a Vaughn administrator who used to teach first grade. “Now it’s about taking time and getting rid of the hustle and bustle approach that teachers used with classes of 27 and 32 students.”

Vaughn administrators also had to find additional classroom space to accommodate the extra classes created. They converted a multipurpose room to a first-grade classroom and plan to rearrange a special education classroom to house 14 first-graders on an enrollment waiting list, Chan said. The school is also waiting for portable classrooms from the state.

Vaughn officials also shifted some kindergarten teachers to first grade and hired two new instructors: a certified teacher who is on standby, and a woman who was a teacher’s assistant for several years but has never run a classroom of her own.

Chan said she did not think the teacher’s limited experience would be a problem because of the school’s own intensive two-week training program and the additional support and supervision from other experienced teachers and administrators. “We have a terrific support system,” she said.

But some educators speculate that several LAUSD schools may have to rely more on inexperienced teachers, to the detriment of young minds.

“You have the possibility of winding up with a huge group of people who are coming in and don’t have rudimentary training,” said Sam Kreshner, director of staff for the teachers union, United-Teachers Los Angeles. “In other words, they’ve gone to college and haven’t taken a single class on teaching.”

Kreshner said union members have had about 10 meetings with district officials to devise a plan for hiring experienced teachers and preparing those with less experience. One option involves hiring back retirees. Another would require in-house training and assistance by more experienced teachers for hires with limited training.

“We’re going to have to be creative and open-minded here if we’re going to pull this off,” Kreshner said. “The goal is to get the best-qualified people to teach these students.”