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Schools
struggle through cuts
posted
09/09/00

By Jill
Barton
STAFF WRITER

STAFF
PHOTO /
MIKE LANG

Kailey Ellis,
15, stands in the back of her science class because there
isn't room for another desk to accomodate
her.

On her first day in a new biology
class, 15-year-old Kailey Ellis weaves through a maze of desks,
backpacks, elbows and feet before finding a spare patch of floor to
stand on in Room 730 at Sarasota High School.

She has 36 classmates, all assigned to
a laboratory that was designed for 24 students a few years ago, when
Sarasota County prided itself on having the lowest class sizes in
the state.

But budget cuts caused class sizes to
swell for many public high school teachers this year, and Ellis'
teacher, Spike Black, was forced to require up to four students to
stand every class.

"In my other biology class, people had
to sit on the floor," said Kailey, who transferred to Black's
third-period honors biology class last week.

The disappointing changes come as
years of overspending catch up with the Sarasota County School
District, often considered Florida's most affluent and one of its
best. School officials tried to soften $17 million in cuts this year
with a school tax hike, but voters rejected it in a July
referendum.

As a result, the budget mess has
produced devastating results just three weeks into the school year.
Class sizes have climbed by an average of nine students in high
schools and been bumped up by as many as six students in elementary
and middle schools. Scores of teachers were shuffled from their
previous jobs to teach different grade levels or subjects.

School officials warn that it will
only get worse. After cutting positions for about 100 teachers and
nearly 100 aides, custodians and bus drivers, district leaders
already are trying to cut another $14.4 million before next year --
when another shortfall is due.

By reducing expenses immediately,
district officials hope to cut those same costs from future budgets,
allowing schools' savings to increase over the next few years. If
they don't, schools' losses will multiply, and the district will
face an additional $10 million shortfall in 2002.

Regardless of when the cuts occur,
some school officials believe that the budget crisis jeopardizes the
school system's coveted top state ranking.

"We're going to crank her down to what
I've said all along, 'a typical Florida school district,' and that
ain't much," said Board Member Larry Helmuth, who decided against
seeking re-election, in part, because of the school district's
dismal financial future.

"Your kids pay the price, and that's
something I'm having a hard time dealing with," he said.

STAFF PHOTO /

MIKE LANG
Student teacher Anna Deeb, center, checks the work of
Sarasota High science students.

So are the teachers.

Many teachers' spirits tumbled over
the summer as their jobs were eliminated. Most of the 100-plus
teachers who lost their positions were forced to take other jobs
that were vacated through retirements or resignations, or to leave
Sarasota County and search for work in neighboring districts.

And as they cope with new teaching
assignments and student rosters that in some cases have multiplied,
Sarasota County's educators also have heard no mention of a pay
raise. All this is happening ironically in a year that the state
approved $1 billion for education and told districts that the
increase was for a 7 percent raise for all the state's teachers.
Teachers in some nearby counties received raises of 6 percent or
more months ago.

"Right now, everyone is committed to
making it work, but people are going to begin to grow weary fast,"
said Velton Hodges, president of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers
Association, which represents 4,000 district employees.

He said the sudden departure of
unpopular Superintendent David Bennett in August and the School
Board's appointment of veteran Sarasota educator Wilma Hamilton has
boosted spirits beyond expectations in a strained budget
year.

"But soon, we're going to have to work
to keep the morale up," Hodges said.

At Sarasota Middle School, Principal
Linda Nook said three-fourths of her staff is new to the school,
returning to the school after working elsewhere in the district or
working in a new grade level or subject area.

"There are people who ended up in new
positions who probably were happier where they were before," Nook
said.

To make the 7 percent cut required of
all schools this summer, Nook cut six teachers and three aides. The
changes caused class sizes for all grades and subjects to climb, and
forced Sarasota Middle to lose one of its two computer teachers and
an aide who worked with the school's media specialist.

Despite their increased workload, Nook
has asked both the remaining computer teacher and the media
specialist to teach one period a day to ease the crowding in some
classes.

The changes have forced the school to
shorten the media center's hours and close one computer lab all day.
Computer teacher John Millard said that last year, 300 to 500
students would shuffle through the lab each week.

"Now it's whatever they can get in the
classroom," Millard said. "That's a serious problem. The world is
moving so fast technologically that sixth-, seventh- and
eighth-graders need all the help they can get."

Students who need the most help top
school officials' concerns this year. Many principals tried to keep
classes smaller for those who are most likely to fail and
compensated by hiking class sizes in upper-level courses.

Schools with high percentages of
children from low-income families fared the best this year. Though
some schools cut $500,000, Alta Vista Elementary received nearly
$370,000 in extra federal money this year because nearly 75 percent
of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Other
grants, including a recent $81,850 reward from the state, also
helped cushion the blow.

"We can breathe a little bit better,"
Principal Constance White-Davis said. "Every dollar was used to
lower class size. Because of the population we're serving, that's
No. 1 with me."

But other elementary, middle and high
schools with small pockets of struggling kids weren't as
fortunate.

"It's bad enough for me teaching
honors kids," said Black, the Sarasota High biology teacher whose
classes are teeming. "I can't imagine what it's like for teachers
who have 40 kids in every class who are struggling."

Though some classes took less of a
hit, all teachers will have to forgo lessons, experiments and
one-on-one time with their students that they considered crucial in
the past.

Because they gained eight to 10
students each class, chemistry teachers at Sarasota High are giving
up some experiments they deem too dangerous with a large number of
students. The school's science chairman, Jim Harshman, described one
canceled experiment that involves dropping copper wire into
concentrated nitric acid as a "classic example in every
textbook."

"It really has become a question of
safety," Harshman said. "It's important that a teacher can keep
track of what's going on in the classroom."

In his first experiment of the year,
Black's able to track his students' progress only with the help of a
teaching intern from Florida State University.

His class is divided into teams of
three or four students, and each group huddles around a lab table
built for two.

"It's irritating," said 15-year-old
Royce Zynda, a sophomore in honors biology. "You get whacked at
every turn."

The cramped quarters made it
impossible for any group to finish the experiment before the bell,
even though last year's students easily finished the assignment
within the 50 minutes they had.

"What happens is, what normally takes
one class period will take two to three," Black said. "So over the
course of the year, you won't cover as much as you should -- it's
just not practical."

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