Class Size

Sitting in the library during a break, two veteran teachers at Edwin Markham Middle School rattled off the names of principals who had been sent to fix the chronically low-performing school in Watts. There was Kimbell, Miller, Norris and Borges. Then came Mir-Rivera, Miyahara, Stroud, Sullivan. This year, Hernandez arrived ? the ninth in 20 years. Each came with a long list of remedies, they said, and most left after a few years with little to show for it. For those two decades, Markham has been considered one of the worst middle schools in California,  despite the best efforts of those principals and an army of well-intentioned reformers, including big-hearted volunteers, private foundations, corporate sponsors, the city attorney's office and ?

Los Angeles teachers union members have ratified a deal to shorten the school calendar this and next year, officials announced Saturday. Nearly 80% of United Teachers Los Angeles members who cast ballots approved of the deal, which could save the Los Angeles Unified School District up to $140 million, save the jobs of about 2,100 employees and maintain class sizes. Under the agreement, which was negotiated over several months, teachers would take an unpaid day off the Friday before Memorial Day and schools would close four days earlier for summer vacation.

Los Angeles school district officials and employee unions announced an agreement Saturday to cut five days from this school year and seven days next year in an effort to maintain up to 2,100 campus jobs. If approved by members of the teachers and administrators unions, the move would save the Los Angeles Unified School District about $140 million and preserve class sizes in grade and middle schools, officials said. The district, the second largest in the nation, is facing a $640-million deficit.

Los Angeles voters will be asked in June to approve a temporary $100-per-parcel annual tax to help fund city schools, but Supt. Ramon C. Cortines warned Tuesday that the increase still would not be enough to head off bigger class sizes, teacher layoffs and, possibly, a shorter school year. Facing a projected $640-million budget shortfall, officials said the parcel tax would yield $95.2 million annually for the four years it would be in effect. The school board needed to act quickly, Cortines said, so the money could offset some cutbacks for the upcoming school year.

"Sometimes they don't see how things are." -- Handwritten student posting on a bulletin board at Locke High School, explaining why the media don't always tell the truth about inner-city schools It requires a second or even a third look at Locke High School to discern the changes this fall, one year after it was taken over by charter operator Green Dot Public Schools. The uniforms are still an ensemble of chinos and polo shirts. The teenagers still gather in the quad for lunch.

Re "Some L.A. classrooms bursting at the seams," Sept. 20 The situation is even worse than the public is led to believe because some districts compute so-called average class size by dividing the number of students on a campus by the number of credentialed instructors on the campus. Many of those credentialed personnel are not actually classroom teachers. John Rossmann Tustin -- Despite the state's budget crisis, the educational bureaucrats still fail to recognize that more on-campus teachers are needed to help reduce class size.

Supt. Ramon C. Cortines is determined to decentralize the cumbersome Los Angeles Unified School District, and that's a laudable goal. But his recent decision to allow individual schools to decide how to spend federal stimulus funds has paved the way for serious inequities. Some schools are using the funds to maintain small class sizes, while others have opted to spend the money in other ways.

Plans to address next year's $596-million budget shortfall in the Los Angeles Unified School District will include raising the average class size in 11th and 12th grades to 43 students. The prospect of larger classes was unveiled by senior officials at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting. The high school class size would increase on average by two students, with many classes much larger. Class size is expected to grow at all levels, with the biggest increase in the early grades, where classes would grow from 20 to 24 in kindergarten through third grade.

Re "A bite out of teachers," editorial, March 11 The Times dismisses saving $60,000 on energy costs, but that represents a classified employee's salary. If urging employees to be energy efficient, as our new policy does, will save one job, I don't believe it is too much to ask. The Glendale Unified School District is weathering not a rainy day but a blizzard of ineptitude from Sacramento. The district is not closing schools or increasing class size. Our teachers still have their jobs.