5 More Schools Put on All-Year Schedule in Santa Ana District

Faced with severe overcrowding, the Santa Ana Unified School District on Tuesday designated five more elementary schools to begin year-round schedules.

Only five elementary schools in the district now remain on a traditional calendar.

The board, on a 3-2 vote, decided to change schedules for schools that are approaching capacity: Adams, Hoover, Jefferson, Remington and Washington.

The board’s action satisfies a Nov. 1 state deadline to notify students and parents that their schools may become year-round, which involves a rotation of students.

$100,000 a Year

Board members James Ward and Sadie Reid voted against Tuesday’s action. Board President Joan Wilkinson and members Mary Pryer and James Richards voted in favor.

The decision could cost the district an additional $100,000 a year, said Anthony Dalessi, assistant superintendent, “but it’s cheaper than building new elementary schools.”

New school construction costs about $8 million to $10 million, and the district needs at least five new schools, Dalessi said.

Although the school board has voted to build a new high school by 1988, Wilkinson said: “We’re still desperate for sites.”

Overcrowding has reached the crisis stage, school officials and board members agree.

The number of schools on year-round scheduling has grown to 13 this year, from one in 1979. Classes are held in 265 portable rooms, including trailers and bungalows. Even school libraries have been used as temporary classrooms, school officials said.

The district’s 1975 enrollment of 27,828 students is projected to increase to more than 45,600 by 1995. Officials said that by 1986-87, the school district will be short of classroom space for 3,868 students.

More students have resulted in more state money, which in turn has led to a healthy budget, school officials said. But the pluses have been offset with the problem of classroom shortages.

The school district has applied for additional funding to build another elementary school, but that application is pending.

Wilkinson said funding is just one obstacle.

The city is rapidly being “built up” she said, which has made vacant land for schools scarce and expensive. Invoking the power of eminent domain may be the city’s only answer, she and other board members said.

Most of the district’s growth has been attributed to an influx of immigrants from Mexico and Southeast Asia. Unlike other Orange County school districts that have suffered from declining enrollment, Santa Ana’s has been growing steadily at 1,000 students per year.

Ethnic enrollment figures last year showed that almost 70% of the students were Latino; 15% were non-Latino whites; 11% were Asian or Pacific Islanders; 4% were black, and .1% were American Indians.