Class sizes at the elementary schools was the major topic of discussion at Monday's Austin Public School Board meeting.

Many parents in the district believe classes are too large for children to get the proper attention from their teachers, as several adults testified at the meeting.

Mary Hagen, of Austin, has a fourth-grade daughter at Banfield Elementary and told board members she was told Aug. 15 that her daughter's class would have only 23 students in it. Since the beginning of school, that number has swelled to 30 and Hagen said, "this isn't an isolated case."

Hagen said 30 students was too many to have in one class. "We urge you to find a solution as soon as possible," she told board members.

Elaine Williamson has a fourth-grade student at Neveln and said her daughter also was in a class with 30 students. "I was told she qualified for the Title I reading program, but she's not getting that and in a classroom size of 30, she is getting left behind … she needs that time in the classroom. It's important for that teacher to go to each student. Our district needs to put that first because 30 children is simply too much."

Dereen Ernst, an Austin parent with children in kindergarten and third grade at Banfield Elementary, agreed a solution needed to be found. "With the referendum passed, my understanding is that class sizes were supposed to be smaller," she said. Instead, she said, her third-grader's class actually has grown from 22 students to 27 students.

"I just want for them to do something, to show some action … I hope all parents will now take a look at this and take an interest in their student's education," she said.

Currently, the target number for kindergarten classes is 18, for first grade, 20; for second grade, 22; for third grade, 25 and for fourth and fifth grade, 28. The cap for all grades is two above the target number. Any more students and schools have to begin to figure out how to shuffle students from one class to another, explained Sheila Berger, director of educational services for the district. She also said all elementary schools in the district have transitional first grade classes, so the students in the regular classes "have a narrower range of abilities," and therefore, she feels more comfortable having the maximum number of students in those classes.

Berger suggested the school district consider hiring more paraprofessionals to help in the classrooms.

However, board member Susan Fell Johnson disagreed. "I don't think it's a very good idea to have 30 (students) in a classroom," she said -- a statement that was met with enthusiastic applause from the parents attending the board meeting.

"Can't you just hire another teacher?" she asked. A teacher would cost only somewhat more than a paraprofessional and another teacher would be able to take on an entire class, while a paraprofessional can only assist a teacher, she said.

However, adding another teacher isn't quite so simple. "It's just not as easy as adding one teacher somewhere," Superintendent Corrine Johnson said. The district would have to find a school with an empty room and then they would have to decide which students to move to that classroom and shift around students.

Another kink in the idea of just hiring another teacher is the budget is based on the number of students and the number of classrooms the district has now, Lori Volz, business services director, explained. Currently, the district has the number of students it planned on having last year; there hasn't been an unexpected increase in enrollment, she said.

The board members did agree to look into possible options for decreasing class sizes and discuss those options with the board's finance committee.

In other board news:

n Peter DeMars, AP calculus teacher at Austin High School, was presented an achievement award at Monday's meeting. Of the 24 students in his AP calculus class last year, all received a score of three or higher on the AP test.

n The date for the sale of $8.97 million in general obligation refunding bonds was set for 10 a.m. Oct. 22.

n Johnson advised residents who live near Sumner Elementary to be on the lookout for possible vandals. She said a lot of vandalism, from spray-painting to broken windows, have occurred at the school lately, but few of the people committing the acts have been caught.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com