BUCKEYE, AZ — Some students are learning with 40 or more other students in the Buckeye Union High School District.
Superintendent Steve Bebee told ABC15 the district’s average class size is 32. However, for this school year, some classrooms have more than 40 students.
It’s also not because of the teacher shortage, which the district is still facing. Bebee said the budget override continuation failed by 600 votes in last November’s election. Only about 20% of registered voters came out and cast a ballot.
The budget override is something the district has asked its voters for 30 years. Schools can ask voters for up to 15% on top of its maintenance and operation budget. BUHSD says it usually asks voters for a 10% override. That money usually “offsets the cost of education,” Bebee said.
Because it did not pass in November, the district lost $1 million this year.
“We had to increase our class size by 1.25. So, it’s now 33.25 [students]. While that’s an average, in reality, what that means is as a district, we’re unable to fill 9.5 teaching positions. That equates to about 9.5 teaching positions compared to last year,” Bebee said.
Increasing class size wasn’t the only change the district had to make this year due to a decrease in funding. Bebee said they have to be stricter on who can ride the bus as well as charge families for some other fees.
“We’ve had to increase our participation fees and our technology fees to all our students for those services. We’ve had less district money to put that way, so we’ve had to increase those fees,” Bebee said.
While some elective classes have had more than 40 students usually – like its physical education or weight classes – the district’s core classes like English and math have not until this year.
Bebee said though class sizes are bigger, teachers are doing what they can to make sure students get their education.
“That one-to-one of individual attention, the more students a teacher has on their caseload, the harder they have to work to make sure they’re meeting those individual needs,” he said.
The Arizona Education Association says the state is “notorious” for having the largest class sizes in the nation.
“The union, this year, has seen higher class sizes than we’ve seen before,” said Marisol Garcia, the president of the AEA.
She says there is an “education exodus.” Garcia said school personnel are not being paid for what they deserve and schools should be funded better.
Some teachers also have to take on more roles because of the lack of educators.
“Things across the state are not getting better. What we're seeing is just further exploitation of educators from a bus driver having to do several routes more than they've done in the past,” she continued. “Working overtime, crosswalk workers are now becoming duty folks also give it being cafeteria workers, but for specific classroom teachers, we are just unable to keep people in the classroom.”
As the district loses money for this year, more families are moving into the area and enrolling into the school.
“That’s a huge detriment for us,” Bebee said. “We get average daily membership from the state for every student that comes. But, what’s happening right now with the new students that are coming into our district, instead of the district getting money ahead to pay for the expenses and the costs, all we’re really doing right now is breaking even for what we had to cut. We’re not getting ahead; we’re just trying to backfill what we had to cut.”
While the district couldn’t have 9.5 teaching positions this year, Bebee said it still is having difficulties hiring teachers. He said they couldn’t hire local people for other positions.
To offset that, Bebee said they’ve hired more international teachers this year compared to years past. He said these teachers are getting certified in Arizona.
“We have teachers from Africa, from Spain, from the Philippines. It’s very interesting to be in the classroom and they are some very good, quality teachers,” he said. “They’ve come to our country to teach and fill that gap.”
Bebee said they plan to have the budget override continuation on the ballot again this November.
