Capo Teacher Negotiations Tackle Class Size, Longer School Year

Negotiations between Capistrano Unified School District officials and teachers began Thursday, and Superintendent Joseph Farley said both sides have a shared goal of reducing class sizes and lengthening the school year.

The district is looking at cutting as much as $20 million in the 2013-14 school year. School district officials have said they can get there if they keep the school year as it is this year, one week shorter than 2011-12, and current class sizes larger than what the state normally allows.

However, at a budget subcommittee meeting Thursday, Farley said that the two sides are not far apart from the get-go.

“In the negotiations today, there really were common interests about class size and instructional days,” he said. “We may get the very concessions we’re hoping for through the negotiations.”

Trustee Jim Reardon said he wanted to look at specific programs that may not be worth keeping in light of sacrificing teaching time and manageable teacher-to-student ratios.

One example raised at the meeting was the school district’s new online high school, California Preparatory Academy. In its first full year of operation, the school is costing $800,000 to run but only bringing in $200-300,000 in revenue from the per-student enrollment, Farley said.

Cutting it could represent a “significant fraction” of putting another school day on the calendar, Reardon said.

“Within the programs there are potentially things that were desirable at one time that may not be desirable if we trade them off for an instructional day,” he said. “We never get around to the discussion of whether that program is desirable compared to the instructional day it costs us.”

One unknown is how much – if any – money the school district will get under the governor’s proposal to change the way schools are financed. Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Clark Hampton said he hasn’t factored in what could be between a $5-7 million boost.

In a report to the school board on Wednesday, Hampton said the governor’s plan may eventually cost the district money in the long run, but for now, its impact should remain neutral. State legislators, however, will have to sign off on the plan, which sends more money to school districts with the neediest of students, as part of the state budget approval process in June.

In addition, Hampton said, the district has not heard how much it will get in its share of the $1 billion Gov. Brown wants to give schools to train teachers in the new Common Core standards. Officials also don’t know whether this one-time money – to be spent over two school years – will come with strings attached.