Teachers, schools, and the Greater Victoria board of education all passed the buck during a debate on this year’s class sizes and make-up.

In the end, the board voted to accept this year’s arrangement of class sizes and composition, with the exception of trustee Catherine Alpha, who voted against it. Before the vote, presenters from the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association told the board classrooms were getting too big and too complex to handle and asked the board to vote against the arrangement.

Mixing students with more demanding learning needs in classes pushing the 30-student limit isn’t effective, said Julia Christianson, a teacher at Cedar Hill middle school, who spoke at the meeting last week.

“I am not able to give them the things they need to reach their potential,” she said. “We have to start saying no to classes like this.”

Teachers are required to sign their approval if classes exceed the 30-student maximum.

District superintendent John Gaiptman worked with schools to compile the class size and composition report, under the B.C. legislation guidelines of Bill 33.

“We’ve worked hard to keep the numbers as low as possible,” Gaiptman said. “However you feel about Bill 33, that’s not what we’re voting on.”

Trustees blamed budget constraints from the freeze on per-student funding in a September announcement from the Education Ministry for classes with more than 30 students, and more than three students with special learning needs, saying the board can’t provide the resources required to shrink class sizes.

Trustee John Young offered an alternative: “Some classes should be 40-50 students. Some should be four or five (for students with higher needs). That would be a more rational way of organizing class sizes.”

ecardone@vicnews.com