On September 3rd, three thousand residents of La Crescenta rose from their comforting beds to greet another busy school year. As the students entered the gates of CV, little droplets of sweat formed on the palms of freshmen hands as they waited for the bell to ring. On the other hand, the sophomores, juniors, and seniors were busy hugging their friends who traveled over the summer. When the bell finally rang, a moment everyone desperately wanted to avoid, six thousand hands unwillingly reached for the doorknob of their first class.
During snack, some students visited their old teachers. Returning students noticed the increased amount of chairs in the classrooms. This was a result of the state budget cut that was decided earlier this year. out of all the departments in California, the Department of Education is one of the departments that receives budget cuts first when the state faces an economic difficulty. at the beginning of the economic recession, according to California Progress Report, Governor Schwarzenegger cut $4 billion from the education system which was already 46th in the nation. Through cutting $4 billion, the State needed to cut 20% of the teaching work force, cancel four weeks of school, or reorganize the class sizes by one- quarter. In 2009, the amount of money cut increased, leading to more cuts in various areas as mentioned previously.
For the 2009- 2010 school year, CV had to dismiss more teachers than they needed to hire compared to previous years. The outcome of this cut increased the number of students per class. However, not all classes were rearranged this way. The classes affected most were Freshmen English and beginning math classes. Classes of higher levels, such as AP or Honors classes were not affected as much, since they were already large.
Various teachers have different ideas on the subject of having bigger classes. Some viewed it as a serious problem and others viewed it as a smart solution.
Teacher Stefane Zamorano, had a 20 to 1 ratio for her 9th grade English classes for almost ten years but now she has a 26 to 1 ratio after the budget cuts.
"I like [bigger class sizes] but it’s not ideal," Zamorano said.
Increasing class sizes and reducing the faculty size was the primary option the Glendale Unified School District had to save money.
Benefits of having small classes were having a "stronger connection with the students and more meaningful instruction time with students," Zamorano said.
As Zamorano adapts to the new class size, she faces difficulty such as not having enough time to correct students’ work and taking more instruction time to teach all of her students.
Luckily, not all CV teachers are greatly affected by the new policy. Teacher Sam Levering, barely faced any differences at all, since he "always had big classes."
At CV, many students choose to take advanced classes. Therefore, AP classes, such as those of Levering were full even before the big budget cut. Levering has about 37 students in each of his classes and he learned how to "deal with the situation" based on his prior teaching experiences. For example, he decreased the quantity of essays but added more fill in the blank and short answer tests.
"This way, the students still write often but my grading load is more reasonable," Levering said.
Students also carry dissimilar thoughts on the subject of bigger class sizes. To most students it is basically higher competition versus more ideas from a larger class.
"I don’t like a lot of people [in a class] because less people means knowing the teacher better," sophomore Joyce Pak said. "They have more students to look after so they have less attention on students."
However, Pak believes the cut was also beneficial beacuse of more ideasare contibuted from a larger class.
"I like big classes because big classes mean more ideas and more fun and you make new friends," Sophomore Michelle Um said.
Like Pak, Um shares a similar idea on how having more students will help her grow more as a student.
It would be better if students were more attenttive of the new changes, but the majority of the students carry out their obligations as if nothing had changed since the previous year.