Proposal Would Shift Allocation of Students Being Bused to Valley

A plan to transfer about 850 minority students now being bused to San Fernando Valley high schools to other area or Westside campuses next fall was unveiled Monday as the Los Angeles school board continued to seek ways to prevent more schools from going to year-round sessions.

The students, who are bused from crowded schools in Los Angeles, would have returned to Van Nuys and Grant high schools in Van Nuys, and Taft High School in Woodland Hills in September. Because all three schools face potential overcrowding, the district is trying to limit enrollment on the three campuses without appearing to curtail the integration program.

About 500 students scheduled to attend Grant would instead be sent to Granada Hills High and El Camino Real High in Woodland Hills under the plan, according to Associate Schools Supt. Jerry Halverson. Van Nuys High would lose about 150 students, who would instead attend Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades. About 200 students scheduled to go to Taft High School would instead be enrolled at Canoga Park High School.

Cuts in Teaching Staffs

The shift would also mean a reduction in the teaching staffs at the three schools. Grant would be hit the hardest and might lose 10 to 12 teachers. Van Nuys could lose three teachers, and Taft six to eight, Halverson said.

The plan, which has yet to be approved by the board, is part of a large package of proposals its staff has recommended to relieve crowded campuses that include shifting junior high students to other schools and increased busing of elementary school pupils.

The district expects 13,300 new students to enroll in Los Angeles schools in the fall, with another 14,000 expected by the following September. By 1990, 70,000 new students will enter the Los Angeles school system, according to projections.

Gloomy Prediction

Halverson told the board that in “two years enrollment will exceed existing capacity of the school district.”

In partial response to the expected influx of students, the board on Monday gave final approval to a $12.8-million plan to place 202 portable classrooms on elementary- and secondary-school campuses. The extra rooms will prevent any additional schools from going to a year-round session, said Santiago Jackson, administrator of the district’s overcrowded-schools task force. The district now has 94 year-round schools, including 11 elementary schools in the Valley.

The board would prefer not to place more schools on year-round sessions because of the long public hearing process that must be completed before a school operating on the traditional September-to-June calendar is converted to a year-round calendar. The district must sell often-skeptical parents on what it believes are the benefits of year-round schooling.

Besides, teachers at a traditional-calendar school must be informed several months in advance of any plans to convert the school to a year-round schedule. Once informed, teachers have the option of transfering to a traditional-calendar school.

But there are many on the board who believe that it is inevitable that all 565 schools in Los Angeles will be forced into year-round sessions in the near future.

‘Running Out of Space’

“The fact of the matter is, we are running out of space,” said board member Jackie Goldberg.

Nancy McCue , a teacher at Grant High, seemed unconcerned about potential overcrowding when she addressed the board Monday. She testified that she was worried about how the reduction in students would affect Grant’s faculty.

“I know that I am a voice crying in the wilderness and may not be heard above the noise of the moving bungalows, but we stand to lose (students) we have come to love and lose many new, young teachers.”

According to Wayne Johnson, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, teachers at the three schools would have two options. They could request to be transfered to one of the schools where the students would be sent or they could remain at their school and risk being cut from the staff or forced to transfer to a different school.