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Teachers and parents urge Yucaipa‑Calimesa board not to increase moderate‑severe class sizes
Summary
More than a dozen teachers, aides and parents told the Yucaipa‑Calimesa Joint Unified School District board that a proposal to raise moderate‑severe (mod/sev) class sizes from a referenced cap of 13 toward 15 would endanger students and staff, citing injuries, behavior incidents and unfilled aide positions.
Several teachers, aides and parents urged the Yucaipa‑Calimesa Joint Unified School District Board of Education on June 11 to abandon or delay plans to raise moderate‑severe classroom sizes, saying the change would threaten student and staff safety and undermine services required by students’ individualized education programs.
"What you are proposing for mod classrooms is going to put our students, instructional aides and teachers into a safety risk," said Scott Slenis, a moderate‑severe teacher, who presented district data on unfilled instructional‑aide vacancies and incidents. Slenis told the board that longstanding unfilled aide shifts mean classrooms are already short‑staffed and that one serious incident could have legal and financial consequences for the district.
Several parents described episodes in which classrooms were evacuated, students harmed themselves or others, or instruction stopped while staff addressed safety needs. One parent said her child stopped attending because she felt unsafe; another said adding students would reduce the one‑on‑one attention that allowed her child to make measurable progress.
Teachers and support staff described frequent, high‑intensity behavior incidents—self‑injury, aggression and elopement—that require multiple adults to manage safely. One classroom teacher said she documented more than 1,600 behavior incidents in a year and that only a fraction of IEP goals were met when staffing levels were stretched.
Representatives of the YCEA union echoed the public comments, urging the board to visit mod/sev classrooms before making policy changes and warning that increasing the cap to 15 students would not account for the district’s inconsistent substitute‑aide coverage.
Board members did not adopt an immediate change during the meeting; the comments were delivered during the public‑comment portion of the agenda for the board to consider during pending negotiations and staffing decisions. The record shows multiple requests from parents and staff that the district maintain current class‑size limits or commit to additional staffing before approving any increase.
