Hawthorne Votes to Make Only 4 of Its Schools Year-Round : Education: The district decides to limit the new schedule starting in July to its most crowded schools: Eucalyptus, Williams, Zela Davis and Yukon.

Under pressure from parents, the Hawthorne School District Board of Trustees has decided to place only four of the district’s nine schools on a year-round schedule, canceling an earlier plan to implement the new schedule districtwide.

On the recommendation of Supt. Roger Bly, the board voted unanimously Wednesday to begin year-round scheduling in July at Eucalyptus, Williams and Zela Davis elementary schools and at Yukon Intermediate School.

District officials say year-round scheduling is needed to deal with an enrollment surge of almost 19% that has forced them to place 39 portable classrooms in playgrounds throughout the district.

Board members said Wednesday that they chose to implement the year-round schedule at the four schools where crowding is most severe.

The board voted unanimously in July, 1989, to introduce year-round scheduling throughout the district. But when board members met Jan. 22 to approve a year-round calendar, they were confronted by about 200 parents who said the district had not given them enough warning. The issue was postponed until Wednesday to allow board members to meet with parents at nine informational meetings throughout the district.

At the January meeting, most parents said they opposed the plan and wanted more time to study it. But about half the parents who addressed the board Wednesday said they did not object to the proposal.

The board’s decision drew a mixed reaction from parents.

Kathy Amato, vice president of the Ramona Elementary School PTA and leader of a 14-member committee that had threatened to seek an injunction to delay the change, said she is not sure if the committee will proceed. She said the group, which had collected 800 signatures on a petition demanding a one-year moratorium, needs to discuss the decision.

However, she said she was happy that the board has attempted to reconcile with the concerned parents. “I don’t feel the decision was completely unwise,” she said.

Michael Leffler, who has two children attending Ramona Elementary School, said he is upset that the district did not ask parents to help choose the calendar for the year-round schedule. He said he and other parents will consider circulating a recall petition against the board members.

In an interview after Wednesday’s meeting, board member Leslie Smullen said that after meeting with parents, the trustees realized that the schedule change would have been difficult to carry out without the support of all the parents. However, he said the district may eventually be forced to use a year-round schedule at the rest of its schools if enrollment continues to increase.

The board also voted to organize a committee made up of parents, teachers, principals, administrators, child-care experts and others to watch over the year-round program and to make recommendations to the board.

Under the plan adopted Wednesday the year-round schools will be in session for 60 days and out for 20 days.

The 60/20 calendar would reduce by 25% the number of students in attendance at any one time, according to school administrators. The calendar includes 180 school days, the same number as the current schedule, and will not disrupt regular holiday recesses, such as those at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The calendar will place students in one of four schedule tracks, three of which will be in session while the fourth is on vacation. Parents will be asked within the next two weeks to choose the track they prefer.

Enrollment in the district began rising unexpectedly two years ago. In September, 1988, enrollment jumped 6% to 5,280 and grew an additional 8% the following September to 5,700, school officials said. By January, enrollment had risen an additional 10% to 6,270.

Without year-round scheduling, school officials had said, an additional 8% increase in enrollment would force them to buy 17 more portable classrooms by next year at a cost of $40,000 each. They said the state will not pay for such purchases, and the district has already borrowed $1.6 million to purchase the 39 portable classrooms it now has.

During Wednesday’s meeting, which attracted about 75 parents, Victoria Warner, principal of Zela Davis Elementary School, said there has been a 20% increase in enrollment at her school this year, bringing the total to 955 students.

She said she expects enrollment to increase because 400 new apartment units are scheduled to open near the school this month.

Although some parents said they did not learn until recently that the district was considering a year-round calendar, district officials said they notified parents through a newsletter mailed in July to every household in Hawthorne. They added that the district has published other newsletters and has held several meetings on the issue with PTA representatives since then.

During a previous meeting, school administrators said that because the year-round calendars provide a vacation at least every 60 days it has several advantages over traditional school schedules, including better retention of lessons by students, less teacher burn-out, improved attendance by teachers and students, and fewer disciplinary problems.

Pam Fees, the district’s director of business services, said the state provides more money to schools that adopt a year-round schedule.

The state now pays the district about $2,700 per student per year, she said. If the district adopts a year-round calendar, the state will increase that amount by at least $25 per student, she said.