Local News in Brief : School to Go Year-Round

Responding to a request from a majority of parents, the Los Angeles Board of Education agreed Monday to allow an elementary school near Elysian Park to change to a year-round calendar this July.

Parents at Allesandro Avenue School voted 245 to 155 in favor of year-round school during balloting in February, a district official said. According to Principal Lynn Andrews, parents were receptive to a year-round calendar because enrollment at the predominantly Latino school has been growing fast, rising last fall to slightly above the school’s capacity of 517 pupils. During school meetings, the parents rejected the option of adding bungalows because the campus was too cramped, and they did not believe increasing busing was a good solution.

The district operates about 96 year-round schools, most of which were placed on the year-round calendar to ease crowding. Only a few schools have gone year-round voluntarily.

A district staff plan to place the entire district on some form of a year-round schedule by next year was withdrawn recently after parents showed strong disapproval.