Education funding group meets with teachers in Calabasas

By Michael Picarella Acorn Staff Writer

A group representing the Calabasas Education Fund met with school teachers of Calabasas recently and discussed areas that need more funding.

The Calabasas City Council created the education fund in July as a way to protect local schools from state budget cuts.

The fund already gave $244,500 to Calabasas schools to reduce class sizes at the high school and add a new librarian and an elementary school intern.

More than $380,000 of a total sum that the Calabasas City Council allocated to the education fund remains unassigned.

"What we’re doing right now is we’re taking input," said Calabasas Education Fund chairman and City Councilman Barry Groveman. "The objective is to make sure we’re getting the most bang out of the buck and that we’re not wasting the money by investing into programs that we can’t afford to do next year. We want to make sure that what we spend has recurring value."

One item that might not have recurring value that seems to be the most popular among teachers and parents is class size reduction. The education fund couldn’t afford several years of reduction, Groveman said.

During last week’s meeting with Calabasas school teachers, the following issues were brought up, according to education fund vice chair Ron Rosengarten:

•Class size reduction in language arts classes at the eighth grade level, which is said to be a key transitional level, with the addition of a floating teacher or the addition of a teacher’s consultant in the class

•Implementation of technology like BlueTooth Wireless School Pads, which are interactive notepads between teacher and students

•Promotion of lab use and maybe the addition of lab programs to increase test scores in the lower 40th percentile

•An upgrade of A.E. Wright Middle School computer equipment due to a loss of funds once A.C. Stelle Middle School opens

•Creation of an exercise science and nutrition lab at A.C. Stelle like that of the program at A.E. Wright

•Writing skills programs

•Tutoring programs

"Overall, there was a good turn-out," Rosengarten said. "The teachers said class size reduction would be a good thing. But if you couldn’t do class size reduction, then maybe having teachers available for things such as labs would make a difference."

Representatives of the fund will still meet with students and afterward with public and private school administers to get input, according to Groveman. "All this is leading to a general discussion that we should have, hopefully, by the end of December on where we’re going to spend the rest of the money," Groveman said.

For more information about future education fund meetings, call Calabasas City Hall at (818) 878-4225.