Parents at 14 Schools Vote Against Concept of Year-Round Classes

Year-round schooling was soundly rejected as a solution to overcrowding by parents at 14 Los Angeles school district elementary schools that were allowed to vote on the controversial concept, according to results released Monday.

The school votes, conducted by mail between Nov. 19 and Nov. 30, are not binding and have no direct impact on the board decision still pending on whether the entire district should change to year-round operation, district officials said.

However, board members indicated Monday that they probably will abide by the wishes of parents opposed to year-round scheduling when they consider whether to accept the ballot results next Monday.

At least one board member, East San Fernando Valley representative Roberta Weintraub, said the schools’ rejection of year-round schooling amounts to a “death knell” for the expansion of the program.

Out of a total of about 15,000 possible votes, 3,614 were against the plan, versus 907 favoring the year-round proposal. The 14 schools--Gulf, Fries, Nevin, Russell, Hyde Park, West Vernon, Hillcrest, Arminta, Hazeltine, Broadous, Dyer, Noble, Sharp and Langdon--are scattered throughout the district. All are overcrowded, with some busing as many as 400 students out of their neighborhoods to attend other schools.

The board voted in October to give the parents of students who live in the schools’ attendance areas a choice between switching next July to a multitrack, year-round calendar--which means that some students at a school would attend class during the summer, while others were on vacation--or staying on the traditional calendar and continuing to bus excess students to campuses with extra seats. The multitrack, year-round schedule would create space for 2,300 students to attend their neighborhood school, district officials said.

Parents were allowed one vote for each child enrolled in or transported from one of the 14 schools. Parents at each of the 14 schools voted against the year-round option by at least 3 to 1.

“Obviously people are not supportive of year-round school, and this is in a situation where year-round school would be really helpful,” Weintraub said.

But Jackie Goldberg, whose Hollywood-Wilshire corridor region contains some of the most crowded schools in the district, said the voting did not amount to a rejection of the year-round concept. She said it reflected parents’ opposition to having some schools on year-round schedules, while other schools in the same area remain on regular September-to-June operation.

“People don’t want to be isolated,” she said, alluding to the problems many year-round school parents have cited when criticizing the program.

Parents have complained about such hardships as finding child-care centers that accommodate the alternating vacation breaks and juggling family schedules.

In October, the board voted to place all district schools on year-round schedules in 1989. But it later withdrew the plan and is scheduled to vote again on the issue sometime after March 1.

Warren Furutani, who is the swing vote on the board on the year-round issue, could not say how the ballot results would ultimately affect his decision on whether the entire district should go year-round. He said the voter turnout at the schools was low, and thus he could not regard the results as “definitive.”

YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLS

Parents at each of the 14 following Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools rejected a proposal to place students on year-round schedules:

Harbor Area: (Gardena, Carson, Lomita, Wilmington, San Pedro): Gulf, Fries

Southeast (Huntington Park, South Gate, Bell, Maywood, Cudahy, Vernon): Nevin, Russell

South-Central and Westchester: Hyde Park, West Vernon

Westside: Hillcrest Drive

South San Fernando Valley: Arminta, Hazeltine

North San Fernando Valley: Broadous, Dyer, Noble, Sharp, Langdon