San Diego

An all-school special magnet program centering on the study of marine science will begin at Emerson Elementary in Southeast San Diego beginning in September, 1989.

The San Diego school board voted Tuesday to approve the marine science emphasis, with the cooperation of Sea World, as a replacement for the current fundamental studies magnet. The current program has emphasized discipline and basic skills but has lost popularity with non-neighborhood white students as schools throughout the district now have similar emphasis on discipline-related matters.

The district’s magnet programs operate in schools originally identified by San Diego Superior Court order as racially isolated and are intended to offer special academic inducements beyond the basic skills for white students to voluntarily bus to them.

Also Tuesday, Supt. Tom Payzant told the board he will now recommend that Chollas Elementary School not be converted to a multi-track year-round schedule next year, which some parents and teachers had opposed. Payzant said a second examination of projected enrollment figures shows that Chollas can remain on a traditional nine-month schedule without causing unmanageable problems.

But Payzant said that he will still recommend next month that Sherman Elementary School be converted to year-round, under which one-fourth more students can be accommodated without crowding by placing all students on one of four nine-week attendance tracks, with three tracks in school at any one time.