LATHROP – Dori Nash is thankful for the support of her classroom parents.

For the past seven years, she’s taught kindergarten at Widmer School. Nash once had a manageable class size of 20 students. But those were the days before the recent state budget woes trickled down to effect public education.

Manteca Unified and other school districts, as a cost-cutting move, were forced to do away with class-size reduction.

Nash, for one, was fortunate to have parents available to help her in the classroom. Last year, for example, she had five parents who she relied on.

“If not for them, I don’t what I would’ve done,” Nash said at Thursday’s Back to School Night.

She has 33 students in her kindergarten class. Some of their parents stopped by the family night event that again included the Parent Teachers Club-sponsored taco dinner in the Multi-Purpose Building.

Suzan Turner, who has been principal at Widmer since its inception some 11 years ago, introduced her teaching staff to those attending the Back-to-School function. Included for this year are over 30 instructors to teach the 940 kindergarten- through eighth- grade students on campus.

“Those (enrollment) numbers have been pretty consistent over the years,” Turner said.

She indicated that Back to School Night gave parents a chance to meet with teachers and learn about their youngster’s expectations on home work and class work.

In kindergarten, Nash gives her students about a half-hour worth of home work on a regular basis.

That’s a far cry from days of nap time and finger painting.

“Before they can start kindergarten, children must know all their letters and sounds,” Nash said. “They have to know their numbers up to 100.”

She’s currently working with her youngsters on forming sentences and reading exercises using the practice books.

Nash enjoys working with kindergarten. In her 20 years as an educator, she also taught first-grade and seventh- grade.

“In kindergarten, we usually beg for parents to help out (in the classroom),” Nash said. “I’ve been fortunate.”