DENVER -- Refinancing has resulted in more money for Denver Public Schools to hire 30-40 new teachers.

Much like people do with their home mortgages, DPS refinanced its pension fund in 2008 to save money long term. While that has cost the district about $115 million, DPS reports that doing nothing would have cost $136 million. That $20 million, along with savings from a hiring freeze and salary freeze for all employees except teachers has resulted in $30 million.

"We're in a position where we've managed the public tax dollars very carefully and very strategically and that's paying off in terms of additional money for our kids and our classroom," said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg.

7NEWS asked Boasberg what DPS is doing right that other districts are doing wrong.

"I think we're all faced with an extraordinarily difficult budget scenario," said Boasberg.

The district plans to use some of its savings to hire dozens of new teachers to address overcrowded classrooms. The majority of the money will be saved to help reduce the need for cuts in 2011-12.

"We will be immediately translating that into 30 or 40 additional teachers, who will immediately put into schools that are being hardest hit by class sizes," said Boasberg. "It will immediately reduce class sizes."

"I think if I could have two classrooms with 20 that would be ideal," said Paula Wiese, a third-grade teacher at Archuleta Elementary School. "My smallest class was my second year of teaching and I had 24 students throughout the year. My largest class is this year with 39 students. When I tell them, 'Guys, there's one of me,' and some of them will respond 'And 39 of us.'"

7NEWS toured Archuleta Elementary School at 16000 E. Maxwell Place, where the average class size is around 30. There are no empty classrooms to split one larger class into two, so if Archuleta had a new teacher, that person would help another teacher in an already oversized class.

"Two teachers in a group of 39, you still have a lot of the kids in the room, a lot of the disturbances, a lot of different things going on," said Wiese.

"We are always appreciative of any monetary support or adult support to make the class sizes actually smaller by having more adults inside a very large classroom," said Archuleta Principal Darlene LeDoux. "I wouldn't call it a problem; I would call it a challenge."

LeDoux believes the ideal class size for the younger elementary school kids is around 20, and 25 for the older elementary students. Right now, the younger classes average around 28, and Wiese's third-grade class of 39 is the largest in the school.

"We're really looking forward to that additional money so we can purchase either more teachers or more para-professionals, which are teacher assistants," said LeDoux.

The money for new teachers, however, may only solve large classroom problems temporarily.

"Some of the positions that we'll be adding this year will only be for a year," said Boasberg.

7NEWS asked LeDoux if it's worth it, even if the teacher is for one year.

"Absolutely. We could either hire one teacher or we could hire three para-professionals for the cost of one teacher," said LeDoux.

"I just see all those children and then I'm like, 'where are you going to fit all those kids in that little school?'" said Maria Jimenez, a parent of a third-grader and kindergartner.

Her youngest son just started at Archuleta and already is dealing with a large class size.

"He actually has 33 children in his class," said Jimenez.

Boasberg told 7NEWS the new teachers would be hired and placed in schools immediately.