A year after the state investigated Lake County Schools for fudging its numbers to meet class size amendments, the state says overcrowding is still a major issue.

The latest numbers show 361 classes district-wide exceeding class size limits approved by voters. The next closest was Marion County with 10, Brevard County had one, no other districts in the area had a single class over the limit.

“There’s a huge case of mistrust and wondering why Lake County is repeatedly having trouble with the class size laws,” said Marc Dodd, who was elected to the Lake County School Board in November.

Superintendent Susan Moxley paid for an independent investigation into the matter last year, after several teachers said they were told to falsify documents to help reduce class size. In the investigation teachers were never asked who told them to lie.

This time around, a Lake County School District spokesperson said class size violations stem from teachers misreporting numbers. The district notified the state Friday that it plans to revise its calculations. All this comes after they hired a special administrator this year to get class size right.

“They were investigated by the State Dept. of Education, they hired a clerk to monitor the numbers, assured the school board that it wasn’t going to happen again, trained the principals on how to make sure they have class size correctly reported and we’re still having a problem? That means there’s a breakdown somewhere,” Lake County Education Association President Stuart Klatte said.

Just two days after the state released its class size numbers, Lake County’s School Board drafted a two-year contract extension for the superintendent. The School Board is set to vote on it Tuesday afternoon at a special 2:30 School Board meeting.

But before he casts his vote, Dodd said the class size issue will be at the top of his list of questions.

 “I would like to see transparency in the process, why the violations are occurring? If they are still occurring? And why we are not able to remain on pace with our neighboring counties who are not having this many problems?”

We asked to speak to the Superintendent and were told no one from the district office was available Friday or Monday.