Kindergarten Classes Will Shrink Next

Having reduced class sizes in first and second grades, Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials are now focusing on smaller kindergarten classes.

The district reduced first- and second-grade class sizes last month to take advantage of a state program that offers a bonus to schools that cut class size to no more than 20 pupils per teacher in the primary grades.

Trustees had debated whether to focus next on kindergarten or third grade.

“Because of financial constraints we have to go with this,” Trustee Serene R. Stokes said of the decision to choose kindergarten over third grade.

The class reduction can be done in kindergarten without hiring more teachers by using a team system, officials said. Because kindergarten classes already have two teachers for part of the day, the state’s requirements can be met by adjusting faculty schedules.

Reducing class size for third-graders would have meant hiring as many as 34 teachers, officials said.

The kindergarten plan still needs approval from the teachers union before it can be implemented.