From: Ellen Koivisto (igneous@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Oct 03 2004 - 10:43:12 PDT
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 10:43:12 -0700 Subject: Re: Middle school class size From: Ellen Koivisto <igneous@earthlink.net> Message-Id: <B24DEEEF-1563-11D9-A570-000A959C38A8@earthlink.net>
Hi all,
A few years ago, Diana Hamil and I did what became a 2 year
study/crusade on class size and safety issues at Washington High in
SFUSD that ended in the filing of a grievance and settlement on the
steps of an arbitration hearing. Our classes sizes were outrageous
given the limited amount of classroom space and access to safety
equipment (eyewash stations, fire extinguisher, exits, shower). We
collected info from Flinn, from various presenters at national and
state conventions, from lawsuits filed against districts and individual
teachers, we contacted people in the fire dept, people who worked in
professional labs, and we talked extensively with the union.
What we finally discovered was that there were no laws covering the
students that were enforceable in terms of class size and safety.
There was stuff in the contract that applied to us, the teachers and
paras working in unsafe conditions, and that's what we filed the
grievance under. We were clear from the first hearing to the last that
we were filing the grievance in order to improve the safety for the
students primarily and that this was our only tool for doing so. The
outcome was we got fire extinguishers in each room, working and
accessible eyewash stations in each room, gfi outlets in rooms where
they were needed, fire blankets in the two official chem labs, adequate
ventilation and a drench shower for the chem storage area, and we had a
way to pressure the administration to keep classes sizes down (note:
"down" in this case means capped at 36-38, and there was nothing
concrete about this). The settlement covered only our school though
any school could have filed using our settlement as precedent.
In the process we discovered that our floors don't even meet animal lab
standards, that the lab furniture was set up in such a way that getting
to an exit was difficult to impossible in case of an emergency, that
the eyewash station was inaccessible to most of the room, that storage
of backpacks was a great difficulty and could result in added injury in
case of an emergency, that we didn't have access to the master gas
shut-off valve in case of earthquake or other gas leak, and that
nothing we could do would bring the air flow int he room up to accepted
standards.
The biggest problem at Washington was labs built in 1937 for 24
students being used for 36-38 students. At my current site, SOTA, we
have rooms built in the 60's that are falling apart and that were also
meant for smaller class sizes and different safety standards. Air flow
issues, for example, are huge in our current building. Administrators
are under pressure to juggle class numbers without consideration to
specific class needs. Few administrators, I've found, really
understand science and the safety concerns. And the financial
pressures from the district, and on our district, are enormous. But
unless you make clear in writing to the next level up that your working
conditions are unsafe, you are personally liable for any accidents that
occur in the lab that could have or should have been prevented by
reasonable safety measures or by enforcing reasonable safety measures.
I'm sure it's different in different states and districts, but the
stories we collected about teachers losing personal assets due to
lawsuits in injury cases in the lab were sobering.
What I found most appalling over and over again was hearing that
students aren't covered. The conclusions I came to from all this were
that we need laws that cover the students in the classroom,
specifically in the science classroom, and that protect teachers from
having to be the only ones concerned about safety in the science lab.
I'd suggest looking to see if there were ever such laws in place for
the vocational ed shops, since I believe we have a lot in common with
voc ed in terms of equipment use and dangers. And, yes, I absolutely
agree with Ben that we should be collecting data as a group and pushing.
Ellen Koivisto
School of the Arts, SF
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