Saugus District Fined for Crowded Classes

The state Department of Education has fined the Saugus Union School District $8,400 for having overcrowded kindergarten classrooms, but the district is seeking a waiver.

Three kindergarten classes in the 11-school district had 34 students each, in violation of the maximum class size of 33 students set by the state, said Nina Johnson, a department spokeswoman. The penalty is $2,800 per student, she said. None of the other four school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley were fined, Johnson said.

Art Clark, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said the district has appealed the waiver on the grounds that it is doing its best to cope with explosive growth.

The district has built four new elementary schools in the past five years to cope with a 52% increase in enrollment in the past nine years--from 3,915 students in 1982 to 5,960 in 1991, Clark said. About 400 of the students enrolled between June and September last year, about 100 more than expected, he said.