Federal Way Teachers Blast School Board -- Smaller Class Sizes Demanded

FEDERAL WAY

Physical-education teacher Janice Kirk said she was tired of teaching in a class packed with 39 students.

``I want to be a teacher. I do not want to just supervise kids. I want to teach them,'' Kirk said, pleading for smaller class sizes.

Shortly before Kirk spoke, Federal Way resident Vicki Hansen made her pitch, one for busing to a new elementary school opening in the fall. The 1.8-mile route children would have to walk from Campus Woods to Silver Lake Elementary, she said, is unsafe and was the scene of traffic fatalities and an attempted rape last year.

Kirk and Hansen had separate goals but both spoke on behalf of children. And they wanted the message to reach the same ears: the Federal Way School Board.

About 150 teachers last night marched to the School Board meeting, protesting against stalled contract talks and calling on the district to lower class sizes. Moreover, more than 50 parents attended the same meeting, demanding the School Board provide busing for children enrolled in Silver Lake Elementary.

Board members listened to more than an hour of indignant, sometimes impassioned pleas. They responded by delaying a vote on the busing program until the next meeting, Aug. 27. Several members said they needed more time to study the issue and, perhaps, to walk the school route along South 320th Street to Southwest 325th Place.

The district is scheduled to meet Thursday with the Federal Way Education Association, which represents about 900 teachers, for a third contract negotiation session. Jan Bieber, union president, said the intent is to negotiate a contract by Sept. 4, the start of school.

Bieber helped lead the teachers, who marched from Steel Lake Park and walked several blocks to the school district building at 18th Avenue South. The group wore raspberry T-shirts with the slogan ``Stack 'em deep/ Teach 'em cheap.'' Carla Nuxoll, Washington Education Association president from Walla Walla, gave the group a pep talk before the march.

``When students have to stand in line to get to you,'' Nuxoll told the teachers, ``they will despair. They will give up, they will drop out and not become tomorrow's leaders.''

Inside the packed meeting room, Federal Way teachers blasted the district, telling board members to get their priorities back into the classrooms.

Teachers now get extra help if their classroom sizes exceed specific limits, which they asked to be lowered. The district, however, has so far refused in its attempt to balance the 1990-91 budget.

The limits for class sizes are: 28 pupils for kindergarten through grade three; 33 pupils for grades four through six; and 34 pupils for grades seven through 12. Physical-education classes, required in secondary schools, can have 39 students maximum.

While teachers aired their concerns about the quality of education, one Silver Lake Elementary pupil spoke on her own, asking for a busing program.

``If it's a walking school, I would have to walk and that's real dangerous,'' Stephanie Gardner said. ``I don't think any other kid should walk on 320th because I tried to walk and I couldn't even make it.''

Her father, Rick Gardner, added, ``It's not that kids can't walk a mile. But what sort of conditions will they be in when they get there?''

School Board member Jim Boldt said he was encouraged by the community's strong interest in school district issues.

``If people show up in a positive way as they have instead of pointing their fingers at the School Board, that's what we like. We don't respond to noise or numbers. We like the information and a lot of good information came out.''