Area School Districts Are Put to Test

By Zac Anderson, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

Oct. 28–Local school districts appear to be in compliance with a state law limiting class sizes despite an unforeseen influx of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

School districts throughout Florida must submit their class-size reports to the state this week. School officials cautioned that the class-size numbers provided to the Daily News are tentative and subject to change during the state’s two-week review process.

A 2002 amendment to the state constitution requires average class sizes of no more than 18 students through third grade, 22 students in fourth through eighth grades and 25 students in high school.

School districts in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties appear to have met the requirements at each grade level, according to the preliminary data.

Last year, Santa Rosa and Walton counties faced financial penalties for being out of compliance with the law.

Walton had to reallocate more than $100,000 because some students were in classrooms that were too large.

The school district took steps to remedy the problem this year, said Jim McCall, the district’s financial director.

“We hired a considerable number of teachers,” McCall said.

But nothing could have prepared the district for the influx of 527 students after Hurricane Katrina, so state officials aren’t including the hurricane-displaced students in class-size calculations.

The same is not true in Okaloosa and Santa Rosa, where hurricane-displaced students will be included in class-size calculations because both school districts supposedly had enough resources to absorb them.

Schools in both districts still had to hire more teachers after the hurricane struck to help bring class sizes down.

Fort Walton Beach High School hired three teachers to meet the class-size law this year. One of the teachers was needed to accommodate the displaced students.

“The school district was great about providing the financial resources we needed,” said Fort Walton Beach Principal Alexis Tibbetts.

The law currently allows school districts to be judged on their average class sizes district-wide. That means schools with large class sizes can balance out those with small class sizes, but next year each individual school must meet the class-size requirements.

Okaloosa school officials have tried to stay ahead of the law. They said only two schools would be out of compliance this year if the stricter standards were already in place.

In Walton, five schools would be out of compliance with the law, while Santa Rosa would have 11 schools out of compliance.

If the school districts don’t decrease class sizes at these schools, they could face substantial financial penalties next year.

“Bringing down those class sizes at every school will be the big trick,” said Doug Dillon, the assistant superintendent for finance for the Santa Rosa County School District.

The state provides additional funding so schools can hire more teachers and build classrooms to comply with the class-size law. But some school officials say the extra money doesn’t cover all the costs, especially when schools need to build more classrooms.

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