Lesson in Year-Round Schools

Los Angeles schools are running out of room. To add 60,000 seats to elementary classrooms by 1993 and start drawing down the number of children forced to ride school buses, the school board must make a tough and--in some areas--unpopular decision. It must approve year-round schooling for the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.

The move would allow an increase in enrollment of nearly 25% without building a single new classroom. It would work this way: A school with an enrollment of 2,000 would be divided into four tracks with 500 students per track. Three tracks-- and 1,500 students--would be on campus at any given time, with the 500 students from the fourth track on vacation. The rotation would allow more students to use the same desks at all schools.

A year-round calendar is the board’s best option. There is neither time to build thousands of new elementary classrooms nor space on campuses for more portable buildings. Double shifts could shortchange afternoon students because they might be less alert, particularly on warm days. Reopening closed schools would not provide enough classrooms. The district’s answers to these and other questions are available at all schools in English and, thanks to board member Leticia Quezada, in Spanish.

Most year-round schools already are air-conditioned and $33 million in state money is available to equip more of them. Priority must be given to older schools and those in the warmest areas. Parents will ask why children who attend schools with empty seats should switch to a year-round schedule. Supt. Leonard Britton’s answer is that the district needs the flexibility it can achieve only if all schools participate.

Some board members, most notably Julie Korenstein, are inclined to leave scheduling and other choices up to individual schools, but that is exactly how the district wound up with a hodgepodge of schedules in the first place. The district needs a uniform system.

The Los Angeles district educates 610,000 students. Nearly 23,000 of them must climb on a bus every day as early as 6:15 a.m.--and at a cost of $1,300 a year per child--just to get to a safe, uncrowded school. As enrollment continues to surge, the best choice is year-round schools.