Labor Day Marks End of Summer, Start of School for Most in County

Goodby, summer. Hello, school.

With the Labor Day holiday now past, thousands of Orange County youngsters head to their respective schools today. While five of the county’s 28 public school systems began classes last week, today is the first day of classes for 17 public school districts.

School systems having first-day sessions today are: Anaheim City, Buena Park, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach City, La Habra City, Magnolia, Ocean View, Savanna, Westminster, Fullerton Joint Union High School District, Huntington Beach Union High School District, Capistrano Unified, Placentia Unified, Santa Ana Unified and Tustin Unified.

In addition to the public schools, most Catholic elementary schools also start classes today. Catholic high schools in Orange County started classes last week.

Only six school districts have yet to start the 1987-88 year. They are Anaheim Union High School District, which starts classes on Wednesday; Garden Grove Unified, Irvine Unified, Laguna Beach Unified and Los Alamitos Unified, all of which start on Thursday, and Newport-Mesa Unified, which starts next Monday.

Yorba Linda, Centralia, Brea-Olinda Unified, Orange Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified began classes last week.

Coastline Community College, based in Fountain Valley, also begins its first day of fall classes today. The other seven community colleges in the county started classes last month.

Cal State Fullerton began fall classes last week, but UC Irvine does not start until Sept. 28.

Orange County Department of Education officials have said the overall enrollment in elementary-secondary public schools will be up about 2% this year, to an anticipated 345,000 students.