Year-Round Schedule Problematic for City Section Programs

A proposal that would place all schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District on a year-round calendar could wreak havoc with high school athletics schedules, according to City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness.

The Board of Education will consider Monday an overcrowding relief plan that was proposed by Supt. Leonard Britton at last Monday’s meeting. Under the plan, which would take effect in 1991, schools would operate on the “90/30” calendar that puts students in school for three months--or 90 days--then on vacation for a month.

The plan also lays the groundwork for the district to adopt a multi-track, year-round operation, which is inevitable, according to Britton. A multi-track plan divides the student body into groups and creates more classroom space because one group of students is on vacation at all times.

But because not all schools face immediate overcrowding conditions--particularly high schools in the Valley--schools would be allowed to start the program on a single-track calendar with all students operating on the same schedule.

Harkness emphasized that the needs of athletics pale in comparison to the concerns that overcrowding presents to the district. He also said that it is too soon to draw contingency plans, citing the possibility that the measure might not gain board approval.

But Harkness claimed that a single-track calendar that calls for two monthlong vacations--one in the summer and the other during the traditional school year--could disrupt high school athletics schedules. The closure of a school during a sports season could present logistical problems of nightmarish proportions, Harkness said.

“When a school is closed, there are no students, coaches, teachers, administrators, support staff, there is no one there,” Harkness said. “The place is dark.

“During the summer, when you don’t have any programs, there’s no problem, but when you have programs, that’s a calamity.”

Currently, Bell, Belmont, Huntington Park and South Gate follow a year-round calendar under a three-track system in which two-thirds of the student body is always in school. A student must attend practices and games while on vacation if the vacation coincides with the season of a sport he or she wants to play.

Harkness claims that the system works well at those schools, saying the only significant consequence is the phasing out of two-sport coaches.

“If you want to coach a sport in the fall and the spring, there’s no way you’re not going to put some off-track time in,” he said.