Clovis Unified reshapes class sizes to avoid losing out on millions in state cash

Clovis Unified School District is acting quickly to preserve millions in state funding by recalibrating its classroom size ratio for its youngest grade levels.

The district could have an annual $12.6 million state grant pulled because its early grades have class sizes limited to 27 students, rather than the state-mandated size of 24. 

Driving the news: California enacted the K-3 Grade Span Adjustment grant in 2013 requiring school districts to maintain an average class size of no more than 24 students in Kindergarten through third grade classes. 

• Districts can collectively bargain alternative class sizes to still receive the funding, but CUSD does not have a teachers union. 

• CUSD had come to an agreement with the now-defunct Faculty Senate in the past in order to qualify for the funding. But the Faculty Senate was dissolved last year amid the unionization push in the district. 

The big picture: Two weeks ago, the CUSD Governing Board approved a resolution that set a cap of 27 students per K-3 class. 

• While that does not mean that K-3 classrooms will all have 27 students in them, averaging more than 24 students in each class would put the district out of compliance with the state for the funding. 

Zoom in: District spokesperson Kelly Avants told McClatchy that the board’s resolution is a formality and that the district researched how other school districts that do not have unions handled the class size issue. 

• Avants pointed to Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District, which has a policy setting a cap of 30 students in K-3 classes. But the California Department of Education told McClatchy that state education code does not allow for any exceptions to the 24-student cap or a collectively bargained agreement, meaning both districts could lose funding. 

• Avants said last year’s lowest class size ratio among the district’s schools was 20:1, with the highest ratio for a school site coming in at 26:1. Adding more teachers to reduce class sizes would cost around $2.7 million annually for 17 more classrooms, Avants said.