School district gambled, lost on class sizes, now tough decisions await
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 9:02 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010
Posted: 6:13 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010
Faced with a $59 million price tag to comply with the state's class-size law, Superintendent Art Johnson took a wait-and-see approach, gambling that voters would approve a constitutional amendment to relax the rules.
But the voters didn't.
Now, the Palm Beach County School District is among the state's top class-size offenders. District officials face an estimated $16 million penalty and a variety of potentially unpopular choices to lower class sizes next year, including boundary changes, double sessions, cutting under-enrolled classes, even declaring popular schools or programs "closed."
Johnson defended his decision today . He said other school districts emptied their monetary reserves and cut classes to meet the stringent requirements this year, while Palm Beach County made "extraordinary efforts" to preserve academic programs and protect