Broward students at overcrowded public schools could have co-instructors next year.

Some students may have the option of enrolling in multi-grade courses, and high-schoolers may be encouraged to take at least one core class online.

Those are some of the options offered by the Broward School District as it wrestled with ways to meet state class size limits, and reduce a $66 million fine levied by the Florida Department of Education.

The district drew the stiff penalty in December when half of its classes failed to meet state mandated class caps at the start of the school year.

Florida law limits class sizes to 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade and 25 in core high school classes.

If Broward’s proposal is approved by the state, the district could see its fine whittled down to $16 million — still the largest fine of any of the state’s 67 county school districts. Miami-Dade likely will end up paying close to $1.8 million.

“Those are funds we should be investing in our schools,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said Monday, after a school board workshop.

Broward struggled to meet class size this year following the elimination of 1,100 teaching positions — a by-product of the district’s $141-million budget shortfall. Last year, Broward had an almost perfect compliance rate of 97 percent and only had to fork over $732,000 in fines.

The district’s class size reduction plan calls for increasing enrollment in college-level Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment courses and paying extra for teachers who take on additional class periods.

“We’re not taking some cookie cutter, one-size fits all approach,” Runcie said. “We have a whole portfolio of options. What works in one classroom may not work in the other. Schools will have several options before them.”

Several board members expressed concerns about some of the strategies.

Board Vice Chair Laurie Rich Levinson said she was concerned about the co-teaching idea.

She told district administrators at Monday’s workshop that parents in her West Broward district complained about classes where certified teachers were paired with art or drama teachers, who assisted by grading assignments, but not necessarily instructing students.

“In my eyes that’s one certified teacher for 50 students,” Levinson said. “It may look good on paper, but we’re not doing what’s educationally sound.”

This year, the district placed an October deadline to stop moving students between classes to meet size requirements, but the proposal removes that deadline, making it possible for students to be moved around as needed.

“When you take a student out of a class when they’re a month into [it], it can be very traumatic,” said School Board Member Donna Korn.

School principals will determine what strategies work best for their school, and must submit their plan to the board to be considered at its February 7th meeting.

The district will then submit the collection of plans to the state for final approval.