School district closes classes School district closes classes (September 24, 2004)

Low enrollment blamed for sudden move

By Julie O'Shea

In another sign of Mountain View-Whisman's escalating financial woes, the school district closed three classes last week, displacing about 60 students and laying off three teachers.

The sudden move, which impacts classes at Slater, Bubb and Mona Loma Elementary Schools, took place after final enrollment figures for the district came back low.

"We are down 100 students at K-3," Superintendent Eleanor Yick said. "This was a very difficult decision for everyone to make."

Yick said the decision to wait until after Labor Day to close the classes was done to give enrollment figures time to settle. If the district had moved to consolidate before the start of school and then saw an influx of new students, officials would have been left without enough room, she said.

"I am not going to go back and disrupt these schools again," Yick said.

Many students in the dissolved second-grade classroom at Bubb and a first-grade class at Monta Loma moved into a first-and-second grade combination class at their respective schools. Students in the closed third-grade class at Slater were placed wherever there was room at the school. The students started this week off in their new classrooms.

The classes that were dissolved were chosen because they had fewer than 20 students in them, Yick added.

In addition to students being shuffled into new classrooms, three teachers lost their jobs, and one teacher was forced to change campuses. The teachers who lost their jobs are considered temporary teachers, or teachers without full-time, permanent status.

The district's decision has left Slater third-grade teacher Nina Kallas heartbroken. Kallas was forced to say good-bye to her students last Friday and pack up the classroom she's taught in for 30 years. She began teaching at Landels this week.

"I'm being kicked off the island," Kallas said. "Where is the fairness to the teachers?"

The district's teachers association is currently in negotiations with district officials over a new contract. The previous contract expired June 30.

Kallas said she was surprised with the district's decision and found out about it just two days before the students were told. She said that notes explaining the situation were sent home to parents with their children last Friday.

Yick said parents whose children would be impacted by this decision were kept informed throughout the process.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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