We believe children are more successful in smaller classes. Teachers are able to teach to the individual; there is greater understanding when every child is met at their level. Students of every ability reach their potential when they are challenged to reach for their personal best. Excellence happens when students and teachers connect. That cannot happen in overly large classes. Our schools are facing the demands and consequences of state and federal testing requirements. How can we increase performance in core academics unless we can reach and teach every student Studies show that the key to high pass rates in the California High School Exit Exam is mastery of core subjects at the middle school level. Our schools are in Program Improvement. There are consequences if we do not do everything possible to support our children\'s learning. We the undersigned request that Santa Cruz City Schools Trustees make class size reduction a funding priority for the coming school year. We feel that classes with a maximum of 27 (25 in grades 4/5) students in core academic subjects will best support all children in their learning. A reasonable class size allows our talented teachers to support individual students and also supports the district in reaching its performance goals. As voting constituents we respectfully ask that that our Trustees make our children\'s success their highest priority. This petition will be submitted to the Santa Cruz City Schools Trustees at their next meeting, Wednesday, 4/26/06, 6:00 p.m. at Harbor High School. Thank you for supporting the students of Santa Cruz!