Overcrowded classes result of teacher, funding cuts
As Tulsa-area students get back into the school routine, district leaders have been scrambling to ease overcrowded classes by moving teachers around and combining classes.
Many districts have had to cut the number of teachers available – even as enrollment grows – because of a 4.1 percent shortfall in state funding this year. The deficit follows state aid reductions the previous two years.
For some, the cuts are felt more deeply than for others.
Union Public Schools has lost $2.4 million in state aid this year, a figure based on the previous year’s enrollment, said Union Superintendent Cathy Burden.
“That is a huge loss,” she said. “That $2.4 million cut has cost us jobs. We are 70 positions less today than we were last year.”
Burden said school districts don’t get their actual allocations until just before students return to classes in August, so decisions often must be made once students are already in school.
At Clark Elementary, some kindergarteners and first-graders were combined into multi-age classes to balance class sizes, she said.
“It’s less than ideal in that it has to happen after the school year begins,” Burden said. “Kids come in and get bonded with their teacher and then they have to change. That’s difficult for the students and sometimes difficult for the parents.”
A similar situation has been playing out at Sand Springs schools, Superintendent Lloyd Snow said.
“When you’ve got fewer and fewer hands on deck, the size of the ship deck is the same but you’ve got fewer people to man it,” he said.
Some classes in primary grades have had as high as 27 students, while some middle-school and high-school classes have had as many as 33 or 34 students, Snow said.
“We’ve just had some class sizes that became untenable,” he said. Snow said he has first focused on balancing class sizes in lower grades, from early childhood to third grade, because early years are critical.
In the past three years, Sand Springs has lost 70 positions due to budget cuts, Snow said.
“We’ve been on this downhill run for about three years,” he said. “We’re just trying to make it all work in the best way we possibly can. But it’s far from where it should be.”
Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Keith Ballard has pledged not to lay off teachers but equated this year’s state aid reductions to 150 teachers’ salaries. Last year, TPS reduced its teaching force by 225 positions due to state budget cuts.
Broken Arrow, Jenks and Owasso aren’t feeling the pinch as acutely as others.
“We have been able to protect teaching jobs in this time of financial crisis by letting our class sizes creep up a bit,” Owasso Superintendent Clark Ogilvie told the school board earlier this week.
Broken Arrow and Jenks officials said their state aid allocations came in as expected.
The only surprise for Broken Arrow is the district was recently notified that funding for the $60,000 professional development and $30,000 advanced placement programs were nixed, said Dwayne Thompson, Broken Arrow chief financial officer.
“Obviously we had plans for that so we’re going to have to scale some stuff back,” Thompson said. “We’ll have to absorb those costs.”
Jenks Superintendent Kirby Lehman said class sizes there are larger than previous years. But the district is coping by reducing expenditures in transportation, custodial services and other areas.
As to why some districts are experiencing more pain than others, state officials point to the state funding formula.
“District allocations do vary based on the factors in the formula. You’ll see allocations changing for districts from year to year based on all those different factors,” said Damon Gardenhire, spokesman for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
The state uses a formula that weighs factors such as local revenue and enrollment to determine each district’s initial allocation. That allocation is adjusted at midyear – around December or January – with the latest enrollment and revenue figures.
Unfortunately, the economic climate appears to be the “new normal” that Oklahoma schools may continue to grapple with for some time, Snow said.
“We’re not unlike any other schools. There’s fewer of us,” he said. “We’re hanging in, hoping for better days.”
