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Santa Ana Will Add Teachers

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register, Calif.

Oct. 12--SANTA ANA -- The number of classrooms with 40 or more students in Santa Ana Unified high schools should soon drop as 11 more teachers are hired and other teachers volunteer to work overtime, district officials said Tuesday.

Still, hundreds of math, science, social studies and English classes at Santa Ana, Saddleback, Century and Valley high schools will have 40 or more students, the officials told district trustees during the school board meeting.

"If I were a parent of a student in a classroom with more than 40 students, I would be ticked off," trustee Sal Tinajero said. "I'm hearing good things about what we're doing to reduce class sizes, but I've heard a lot of this before."

The number of classes with 40 or more students has dropped at some schools in math and science since the last tally two weeks ago. At Valley High, classes with 40 or more students dropped from 39 to 17 after substitutes and new teachers were brought in.

This year is the second consecutive year that enrollment in hundreds of classrooms in Santa Ana Unified's four largest high schools has surged above 40 students. The state recommends high school class sizes in the mid to low 30s.

The cash-strapped district has cut about 400 teaching jobs in the past three years because of ongoing budget problems, with high schools bearing the brunt of teacher losses.

The Education Code and the state's class-size reduction program places tough restrictions on class sizes in elementary schools. Limitations are more lax in high schools.

State funding is given to districts in one large pot -- it's not divided by grade or school level. So when staffing cuts are needed, they often start at high schools.

ENROLLMENT FIGURES:

Year...Enrollment

*2002-03 ... 63,610

2003-04 ... 62,874

2004-05 ... 61,693

2005-06 ... n/a

* Includes charter schools

Century High School

2002-03, 2,782

2004-05: 2,623

Valley High School

2002-03: 3,072

2004-05: 3,123

Santa Ana High School

2002-03: 3,945

2004-05: 4,144

Saddleback High School

2002-03: 3,118

2004-05: 3,202

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Orange County Register, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Orange County Register

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