The Times Orange County Poll : Majority Favors Year-Round Schools

A majority of Orange County residents favors year-round schools, at a time when national polls indicate that most Americans are evenly divided on their preference for the traditional school calendar, a Times Orange County poll shows.

In a poll of 600 Orange County adults, 58% indicated that they favor schools being open year-round. The approval rate was even higher--at 61%--among parents with school-age children.

Of the 484 public schools in the county, 23 elementary and middle schools in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano are on year-round schedules. Other school districts are considering making the switch.

“Parents and students are excited about it,” said Richard Sifuentes, co-president of the Parent-Teacher Assn. at Las Palmas Elementary School in San Clemente, where a year-round program is in its second year. “Now they are so excited that more parents want to enroll their kids.”

In a year-round schedule, students’ vacations are shorter and they are staggered throughout the year instead of being concentrated into three consecutive months during the summer.

The number of schools switching to year-round is growing not only here but also nationwide, according to Charles Ballinger, executive secretary of the National Assn. of Year Round Education, which is based in San Diego.

“That’s what I would say is very good news,” Ballinger said of poll findings. “Without question the trend is to go to year-round. The increased growth in California (enrollment) is putting tremendous pressure on school districts to use their facilities in better ways.”

Approval Widespread

The findings are part of the Times Orange County Poll conducted by Mark Baldassare & Associates of Irvine for the Times Orange County Edition. The telephone survey on the issue was conducted Aug. 6 through 8 using a random sample of listed and unlisted telephone numbers. The margin of error is plus or minus 4% overall; it is greater for subgroups.

The poll found that a majority in all geographic areas support year-round schooling but that the highest rates of approval--67%--were from central Orange County. That region includes the Santa Ana Unified School District, where 14 of 25 elementary schools are on year-round schedules, some having been so for more than a decade.

Support for the idea was seen in all age groups, although the highest percentage--44%--to express disapproval for it came from the 18-to-34 age group.

Debbie Sargent of Yorba Linda, who has a son about to enter first grade, is among the 37% of all respondents who expressed opposition to year-round schools.

“I think it breaks up the family,” she said. If the traditional summer vacation is eliminated, she said, “it doesn’t allow the child to be a child.

“Lots of parents have real conflicts when one child is on year-round and the other isn’t,” she said. “I know I wouldn’t favor it.”

National Surveys

National polls, in fact, show that year-round school schedules still are not favored by a majority, although Ballinger maintains that the number of people opposed to the idea has been declining steadily.

In a June Media General-Associated Press poll, 49% of 1,084 adults surveyed said they oppose year-round schools; 44% said they favored them. Because of the poll’s 3-point margin of error, the findings are considered a split decision.

Ballinger, however, said: “We thought that to be very positive because over half of the states don’t have year-round classes yet, and so many people are not familiar with the concept.”

Many school districts, particularly those facing overcrowding, have switched to year-round schedules to maximize the campuses’ capacity. Santa Ana Unified, for example, is growing by about 1,000 students per year.

New projections released by the state Department of Finance last Friday indicate that Orange County’s school population will increase by 27% over the next decade, a much higher rate than previous projections estimated.

Variety of Plans

Year-round schedules can take several forms. Santa Ana Unified uses what are called “multitrack” schedules. In these, campuses are actually open all year, but at any given time, 75% of the pupils will be attending classes and the rest will be on vacation.

Santa Ana Unified is the only district in the county to use a multitrack system. The other three in the county with year-round schedules--Capistrano Unified (two elementary schools), Irvine Unified (two elementary schools) and Orange Unified (four elementary schools)--use “single-track” programs. In these, although the traditional September-to-May schedule is not followed, all students will be on vacation at the same time. The terms may be divided up in a calendar that has, say, 45 days of classes alternating with 15 days of vacation; in addition, there would be several weeks off around Christmas.

Some administrators are looking at year-round scheduling simply because they believe it has educational advantages.

‘Great Idea’

Sister Carmel Marie Silva is principal of St. Boniface Elementary School, a private Catholic school in Anaheim that is the first in the Orange County Catholic Diocese to try a year-round schedule. The school began a three-year pilot project Aug. 1. “I’d like to see (year-round school) encouraged more because I think it’s a great idea that’s late in coming,” Silva said. “I would think people would be for it, especially with all the studies showing that academically it is better, and that’s really what parents want for their children, isn’t it?”

Sifuentes of the Las Palmas Elementary School PTA said, “It gives them a month of vacation, and they don’t forget what they learn. They really like this.”

The Anaheim City School District, which is facing severe overcrowding in its 21 elementary schools, is expected to be the next district in the county to try it. A blue-ribbon panel has recommended going to year-round, said Supt. Meliton Lopez, and plans call for making as many as six of its schools year-round by next summer.

“I’m sure there will be some opposition,” Lopez said. “It’s a change, and change is difficult for some people. . . . But our plan is to do it.”

District’s Choice

Kent Hann, a trustee in the Saddleback Unified School District, whose student population is growing by about 1,000 a year, said he is not surprised by the findings for the The Times Orange County Poll. His school district considered going to a year-round schedule last fall as a solution to the overcrowding problems, but the idea was dropped, in part because of the opposition it drew.

“We had meetings with people in the community and talked with hundreds if not thousands of people,” he said. “Our consensus is that the majority did favor year-round schools. There was a very vocal minority opposed to it, but it was the minority.”

Unlike some educators, Hann said officials at his district did not find sufficient evidence to convince them that year-round schedules are better educationally.

“Some studies say they do as well, but not better, so there was no reason to go through the battle if it was not going to improve things,” he said.

The other factor in Saddleback’s decision, Hann said, was that the district found a way to make developers help pay for new schools.

Earlier Poll

The findings in The Orange County Edition poll also contrast with those of a 1987 Times Poll of Los Angeles County residents. In that poll, opinion was evenly divided on year-round schedules. At that time, the Los Angeles Unified School District was embroiled in a controversy over its plans to make all of its schools year-round because some portions of the district were suffering severe overcrowding.

Albert R. Peraza, a trustee in the Anaheim City School District, agreed that public support is important. The way to get it, he said, is to give parents plenty of information to persuade them of the merits of year-round classes.

Peraza said he believes the year-round plan, contrary to one of the arguments against it, is actually a good thing for people who want to take vacations with their children. Families can travel at times other than June or August, when there are crowds at hotels and attractions and high demand for airline tickets.

“Our whole society is changing,” Peraza said. “We aren’t agrarian anymore, and I think kids probably retain more (knowledge) if they are on the year-round plan.”

The issue of year-round will take on more prominence in California as 1990 approaches. A 1987 state law stipulates that schools on year-round schedules by 1990 will have better chances of getting school construction money, said Tom Payne, consultant for year-round schools for the California Dept. of Education.

THE TIMES ORANGE COUNTY POLL “Do you favor or oppose schools being open year-round?”

Favor Oppose Don’t Know TOTAL 58% 37% 5% By Schoolchildren Have schoolchild 61 35 4 No schoolchild 57 37 6 By Age 18-34 51 44 5 35-54 66 29 5 55 or older 59 37 4 By Region North 54 38 8 West 52 43 5 Central 67 29 4 South 62 35 3

Note: Some percentages may not equal 100% because of rounding.