Year Round School

One day after the Los Angeles Board of Education agreed to delay a vote to convert four San Fernando Valley high schools to a year-round schedule, parents and teachers at those campuses blasted the board for accommodating a small group upset by the proposed change.

In an 11th-hour reprieve, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday postponed a vote on converting four San Fernando Valley high schools to a controversial year-round calendar after hearing passionate protests over the effects of the change on a program for gifted students at North Hollywood High School.

The realities of school overcrowding have slowly been eroding a onetime guarantee for students--summers off. The year-round calendar, which was rejected by most Los Angeles Unified School District schools two years ago, is making a comeback. Last week, the school board received a proposal to switch to that schedule for North Hollywood, San Fernando, Francis Polytechnic and Monroe high schools in the San Fernando Valley. Administrators at Van Nuys and Grant high schools are also considering it.

An exploding student population in Valley high schools has made the once radical idea of year-round schools a reality.

Administrators at four San Fernando Valley high schools want to convert to a year-round schedule this summer to accommodate hundreds of ninth-graders who will be added to the top three grades in a districtwide reorganization. The schools--North Hollywood, San Fernando, Francis Polytechnic and Monroe--would become the first year-round high schools in the Valley.

In John Perez's article ("Politicians to Blame for Sorry State of Our Schools," July 16) the finger-pointing at the politicians in the Legislature remains in the same posture as all other finger-pointing--i.e., with four fingers reflecting back to the pointer. In the case of overcrowded Van Nuys High School, unable to house potential students in its magnets, the finger-pointers neglect to mention the reasonable solution of a multitrack, year-round school. With such a schedule, the high school could have housed the three magnets.

Only two weeks after Old Orchard Elementary School switched to a year-round, multitrack schedule, district trustees have opted to return to a traditional school year. Newhall School District officials said at a school board meeting Tuesday night that the year-round program, initiated to alleviate expected overcrowding at the school, is no longer valid because of a decline in enrollment since the Northridge earthquake. The dip in enrollment came after a decade-long trend of growth.

The leaders of Euclid Avenue Elementary School--exercising their newly given power from the Los Angeles Unified School District to make their own decisions--have redefined the meaning of a democratic vote. And parents are fuming about it. When the time came in March to decide on a school calendar for next year, parents turned out strong and believed their overwhelming vote would be enough to win a traditional summer vacation schedule. But they were wrong.

Beginning in late July, students at James A. Whitaker Elementary School will attend class year-round--the first in the Buena Park School District to offer a continuous learning program. Despite opposition from some parents, the Board of Trustees last week unanimously approved a pilot program that enables students to attend school throughout the year instead of the traditional nine months of school with nearly three months off in the summer.