Well, after attending the WCCUSD meeting, I'm thoroughly depressed. My son attends Kensington Hilltop which is part of the WCCUSD, formerly Richmond school district. We just found out that class sizes from K-3 were going up to 30 kids from around 20. This is just plain unacceptable. One of the reasons we moved to Kensington was the excellent local elementary school. Now this standing is at risk. It's ironic because Kensington as a community could probably afford to keep class sizes at 20, however, Kensington Hilltop is a strong school in a very large and academically and economically weak school district. Has there ever been any discussion of Kensington and El Cerrito schools breaking off from the WCCUSD? How would one organize such a change? Would it have to be approved by the WCCUSD? A Concerned Parent

What your suggesting, it sounds like, is that Kensington break off from WCCUSD and become a Basic Aid funded district as opposed to an ADA (Average Daily Attendance) funded district.

Background in case you need it Back in the 70's California decided to distribute state school funds equally among districts to address the inequity between wealthy and poor communities. However, they also created the loophole for the wealthier districts that if they wanted to opt out of the standard state (ADA) funding, they could collect their own parcel taxes and fund their schools independently. Several districts in the Bay Area are funded as such.

In this current budget crisis, Gray Davis has announced his intention to collect 80% of the tax revenues Basic Aid districts collect (beyond the amount they would receive as ADA school districts)and put that money into the state general fund (not even the education fund). So it's doubtful that creating a Kensington Basic Aid district would be worth it financially at this juncture. Furthermore, I believe a district needs the state's approval to become a Basic Aid district and I wonder whether the state would even grant such an application at this time?

Perhaps you were not intending to make Kensington a Basic Aid district, and just think it could manage ADA funds better than the WCCUSD. Perhaps, but given the current economic climate for public schools it's not going to be easy to get a new district off the ground.

Best of luck to you.

But, wait! I'm sorry to hear that class sizes will be increased throughout the district, but class sizes have only been small for K-3 for the past 5 years. In the past, Kensington school had many ways to help deal with larger class sizes like pull-out programs where 1/2 the class went to science or reading and the other 1/2 stayed with the teacher. And, just so you know where I'm coming from, both of my children went to Kensington school with large classes all the way through. During that time, the school won a California Distinguished School award and was consistenly a highly rated public elementary schoool. My son just got into UC-Berkeley and my daughter is an almost straight-A student at El Cerrito High. Of course, special needs children may do better in smaller classrooms, but the majority of the students can do fine in larger classes. I wouldn't sweat it too much if I were you.
former Kensington school parent