L.A. School Officials Recommend Delay in Adding to Year-Round List

Los Angeles school officials recommended Monday that the district delay placing additional schools on year-round operation until July, 1988, and use other methods in the interim to alleviate a growing classroom shortage.

With “some reservation,” Supt. Harry Handler advised the board to adopt a plan that will add 265 portable classrooms to 81 schools, change the integration ratio at 26 schools and bus about 9,000 more students from areas where campuses are crowded to schools with extra seats.

Those changes, which will cost about $24 million, will provide enough space for next year’s enrollment growth of about 15,000 students.

Handler noted, however, that because enrollment for the next few years will continue to grow faster than the district can build schools, the majority of the district’s 600 schools will have to switch to year-round operation “early in the 1990s.”

The board will vote on the superintendent’s recommendation next Monday.

Support for the Plan

Several board members seemed ready to support the plan to postpone additional year-round schools, particularly East San Fernando Valley representative Roberta Weintraub, who has argued against the year-round school expansion because of heavy opposition from parents.

“We could have avoided a lot of fuss if we had come out with this plan originally,” she said.

The board has been studying several options, including a plan that would have placed as many as 78 more schools on year-round operation next July.

Handler said Monday that a recent district analysis indicates that adding schools to the year-round program is not necessary this year because the enrollment growth of 11,000, while substantial, was about 3,000 less than the district had projected. In addition, about 4,000 fewer students than estimated chose to participate in the voluntary busing program to achieve integration this year. As a result, he said, more seats became available at some schools this year.

But Handler expressed several concerns about delaying the expansion of the district’s year-round program until 1988, beginning with the need to bus about 2,000 more students than would be required if the district were to proceed with one of the earlier proposals to place more schools on year-round calendars.

The district already buses about 30,000 students from overcrowded schools to campuses with more room. Most of those students are from minority neighborhoods in the district’s southeast quarter, the East San Fernando Valley, downtown and along the Wilshire Corridor.

Handler said it costs about $1,000 a year to transport each student. That money could be better spent on air-conditioning schools that eventually will have to convert to year-round operation, he said.

Furthermore, the superintendent warned that the delay means that by 1988 the district will have to consider placing a larger number of schools on year-round schedules, and that could have an “adverse effect” on the district. Last year, Handler had recommended that to reduce confusion, a number of schools should be phased into year-round operation every year until 1991, when all schools would operate year-round.

Preparing to Change

Delaying the expansion of the district’s year-round program until 1988, however, would allow students, parents and school officials ample time to prepare for the change in schedule, he said. At two recent public hearings, many parents complained that they needed more than six months to get ready, particularly because of possible problems in arranging child care.

Handler suggested to the board that it name the additional year-round schools no later than next January, as well as find ways to better communicate with parents about the advantages and disadvantages of year-round schooling.

At that time, the board also should choose a year-round calendar for elementary and secondary schools, discuss reopening some of the district’s 23 closed schools and find a way to complete the air conditioning of current year-round schools, he said.

The superintendent’s plan also calls for reducing crowding at certain schools already operating year-round by limiting their enrollment to 95% of their capacity.