White Oak parents upset over split class

The split second- and third- grade class at White Oak Elemen- tary School has parents consider- ing pulling their children from the Westlake Village school, and Las Virgenes Unified School District officials scrambling to quell their concerns.

Diane Ensey opened the doors to her White Oak Elementary School classroom this year, ready to tackle a challenging blend of 14 second grade students and six third graders, all within the same class- room.

There are 106 third grade stu- dents at White Oak, 100 of whom were distributed equally into five classes.

The six extra students created a dilemma for school officials. A state mandate sets a limit of no more than 20 students per class in kindergar- ten through third grade and if the six students were placed among the five classrooms the school could receive a heavy fine.

One option would be to create one "overflow" class. An overflow class allows the school to override the small class ratio if a part-time teacher is hired to help the main teacher. The part-time teacher's sal- ary would cost the district at least $25,000, according to Donald Zimring, the district's deputy su- perintendent.

Parents are upset

Although parents would have preferred an overflow class, the least expensive option for the dis- trict was to split one class between two grade levels.

But according to Ian Goldsmith, a parent of a third grade student in Ensey's class, "To our minds $25,000 is a very small price to pay for qual- ity in the education system."

Goldsmith conducted research on split classes. He said studies show that combined classes work well if the teacher has experience with the higher grade level of the class.

"No one is really thrilled about the idea of a split class unless you're in the lower class," said Larry Schwarz, one of the parents battling the district.

Schwarz represented all six families when he complained about the split class to school board mem- bers at a recent board of education meeting. He called the split class "inferior" compared to the other third grade classes.

Schwarz said the third graders were moved from class to class each day as if they were in middle school. "It's basically a chaotic situation," he said.

"The school attempted to give our third graders access to some of the third grade projects by sending them to other third grade classes," said another parent, Lori Hultin. "The problem was, instead of se- lecting one third grade classroom they were shuffled around to mul- tiple classrooms for multiple projects."

'What grade are you in?'

Hultin said the parents' com- plaints are about the school district, not the "fine teachers" of White Oak Elementary. Her child's biggest con- cern was that other children perceived the class as remedial.

"She had to field questions from them as to why she is in a second grade class," Hultin said.

To make matters worse, the third graders in Ensey's class ini- tially were not allowed to eat lunch with their peers from different classes.

School makes adjustments

Ann Eklund, the district's direc- tor of elementary education, said

teachers are credentialed to teach many grade levels. "It's not unusual for a teacher to plan for GATE (Gifted and Tal- ented Education) students and stu- dents who need special attention," Eklund said. A split class may even be less of a challenge than other single-grade classes. Eklund said in some classes with children of the same age, the teacher may actually teach three to four different groups of students based on their abilities. White Oak Elementary Principal Abbe Irshay said her class is now split between 12 second graders and seven third grade students. An instructional aide helps in the class so students always have an adult at their side, Irshay said. To lessen the problems associ- ated with large classes, one of the school's kindergarten teachers has been assigned to assist third grade teacher Lorna Maxwell. But all stu- dents at the school will continue to move to different classes each week for art, music, computers, physical education, and library. "In our schools we value coop- eration and collaboration among our students and teachers." Eklund said. At a crossroads

In a letter to parents, several op- tions were outlined. Home school- ing was suggested, and parents were reminded of the option that allows them to transfer their chil- dren to another school within the district if third grade openings were available.

"I think the possibility of pull- ing our children from White Oak is an option most of us have been considering," Hultin said.

Goldsmith said he'll support his child regardless of the less-than-op- timal school environment.

"We will do everything in our power to ensure the success of our kids, including outside tutoring if we need to," Goldsmith said. "We won't make children weapons in this fight."