Lower enrollment rates and increasing class sizes

By Sophia Weinberg

Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD), has reported lower enrollment rates in the upcoming years, yet individual class sizes are at record heights. TUHSD continues to lay off teachers and offer limited class periods of sought-after courses in an effort to reduce overall spending.

In 2018, TUHSD was at the peak of its budget crisis and forced notable cuts to be made. “We came out of a severe budget crisis a few years ago,” TUHSD Superintendent Tara Taupier said. “In order to address it we had to identify areas for overspending and efficiency, including reducing some positions and keeping them vacant for a while.”

In March 2020, the district sent out “pink slips” to a number of teachers, warning them about the possibility of layoffs.

The layoffs of staff members consequently lead to an increase in class sizes. “We went into negotiations with teachers and set a hire class size cap, in order to meet other financial needs,” Taupier said.

Not all teachers believe that the negotiations were fair. “Teachers were told there was only enough money to give us a raise if we agreed to larger class sizes. I wouldn’t call that a choice. Nor would I call it a raise. We agreed to more work in exchange for a small pay increase. In retrospect, it actually was a pay cut by about 8 percent this year, given inflation,” Advanced Placement (AP) Composition and documentary teacher Jonah Steinhart said.

Expanding class sizes have already resurfaced issues teachers and students in the Tam community were initially concerned about. “With bigger class sizes it’s harder to feel more comfortable asking questions, and there’s overall less of a relationship between me and my teachers. It affects the pace of my learning, and I have to put in a lot more effort outside of class,” junior and former charter school student, Ellie Nordstrom said.

Taupier was quoted in the Marin Independent Journal saying that “there is a belief that smaller classes increase learning, Research doesn’t bear this out — it’s the instruction.”

Contradictory to Taupier, Steinhart feels like he is not able to teach to his full potential with larger classes. “Anyone who says class size isn’t crucial has not tried to teach an AP English class with 35 students in it. Kids have never needed my emotional and academic support more, and I have never had so little to give on a per-student basis,” Steinhart said.

According to a research paper by Fremont University, class sizes under 20 do better for five reasons: there is more peer collaboration, coursework is better adapted to the class, smaller class size encourages participation, assignments are more hands-on, and students can receive better feedback from their instructors.

AP Spanish was only offered a total of two periods, and AP French only was offered sixth period, leaving students who were not seniors and did not get in having to pay for online classes. Calculus BC was very limited, leaving other students in Calculus AB who did not want it. For some students, the only viable option was to take the course online if it did not fit their schedule.

“It’s unfair that a class that other kids can take for free, I have to pay for because the school couldn’t fit me in,” junior Nadine Roose said.

The district has made efforts to resolve course availability issues. “We made it possible for students who wanted to take [Calculus] BC at College of Marin. As for Spanish, students who are not yet seniors have the opportunity to take it next year,” Taupier said.

The district has been officially out of the crisis with TUHSD having a $1.6 million increase in budget this year. Each year the district has a budget and a spending plan, which is how the money will be distributed. In its $106 million spending plan, it will deficit spend in 2022-23 by about $2 million.

Taupier addressed the statement which had surfaced many reactions from teachers and families. “There’s been a lot of research done out there, that the most impactful thing is instruction, what the teacher does. Studies a while ago show that with smaller class sizes many teachers didn’t change their instruction so it didn’t change their learning. That’s more what I meant by that, ideally, if we had all the money, obviously we would keep class sizes down.”

To further compensate for the lack of instructors qualified to teach specific courses, certain courses at Tam have been cut down to fewer offered periods.

“We are no longer in jeopardy of being insolvent, but we had to cut about $6 million dollars, and that included reducing staffing,” said Taupier. “Although we are no longer in a crisis, everything is coming out of one bucket of money, meaning we have to make cuts in some areas in order to keep other programs.”

Areas where TUHSD is choosing to make cuts too in addition to staffing are release periods.

With lower enrollment rates and a no longer insolvent budget, TUHSD staff members are hopeful to see improvements in both their teaching conditions and salary.

“The current district leadership deserves credit for pulling us out of a financial crisis they did not create. Now, with a healthy reserve fund and enrollment finally decreasing, they will receive even more credit if they can get class sizes down and teachers pay apace with inflation,” Steinhart said.