Cities Face Switch to Year-Round Schools : Lynwood Postpones Schedule Change as Parents Complain

Faced with protests from more than 200 parents and children, the Lynwood School Board Tuesday temporarily postponed action on a proposal to relieve seriously overcrowded classrooms by testing year-round schools.

While the crowd of mostly Latino parents and children stood outside the tiny school board chambers chanting “No year-round school!” several of their representatives addressed the five-member board about their concerns.

“We are sure the year-round program will disturb the academic opportunity of our students,” Mathilde Zapien said to the board in Spanish.

Jose Munoz, who also spoke in Spanish, said, “You have been working a long time on this plan but you have not explained it to the parents.”

Another parent, Linda Beasley said: “I want my kids to go to a normal school. I don’t want them going to an experimental one.”

The parents also drew some support from board member Thelma Williams who said she did not agree with year-round schooling.

“It’s the pits. It’s a factory. We must look at this from the parents’ point of view,” Williams said.

The proposal calls for a year-round schedule in three elementary schools: Roosevelt, Will Rogers and Lindbergh. The program would begin in July and would be voluntary. Parents who did not wish to participate could send their children to other schools in the district.

Officials said the schedule would remain in effect at the three schools for a year and, if successful, would be phased in at other district schools.

The district has not decided how many calender tracks would be used in the system. Under year-round schooling, there would always be one group of students on vacation while the other groups attended classes.

Williams said she has relatives whose children attend year-round schools in other districts and that they all found the system disrupted family life, especially vacations, when students from the same household were on different calendar tracks.

The protesting parents also believe the year-round system would interfere with family vacations and that many would not be able to afford additional child care that would be necessary if children attended different tracks. Parents said they believe the system would give students a greater opportunity to participate in gang activity.

The parents also said they believe that overcrowding in the Lynwood district is exacerbated by students who illegally register in Lynwood in order to escape year-round schools in nearby South Gate.

School officials said they have no proof that this is true, but that they recently began a vigorous check to make sure students are not registered illegally.

After listening to six of the protesters, the board decided to delay making a decision and instead scheduled a public meeting March 22 at 6 p.m. at Bateman Hall in the city’s Civic Center.

“We will fully explain all aspects of the year-round school plan. We will also solicit the input of parents and hear their concerns,” board President Joe T. Battle said.

Battle said district officials held informational meetings last week to explain the proposal to parents and teachers.

Officials said a year-round schedule is necessary to relieve overcrowding at the district’s 13 schools because the district is running out of space while enrollment is rapidly increasing.

There are nearly 15,000 students in the district, which is 74% Latino and 22% black. During the last five years, the district has had an increase of 400 to 600 students each year, officials said.

Last year, the State Department of Education fined the district $360,000 for placing students in overcrowded classrooms. The state found that the district constantly violated the state’s average limit of 30 students per classroom. All the violations occurred in the elementary grades.

The district wants to test year-round schooling at Roosevelt, Will Rogers and Lindbergh because they have the largest enrollments of the nine elementary schools and because they are in different parts of the city. Will Rogers, which has 1,000 students, is on the east side of the city. Lindbergh, with 1,500 students, is on the west side and Roosevelt, which has 1,400 students, is in the central part of the city.

Roosevelt Principal Bernice Jacobs said she is constantly faced with trying to solve problems created because of overcrowding.

“Our lunchroom seats only 250 and I have to somehow push 1,400 students through there within two hours each day,” Jacobs said.

Some students had to attend classes in the auditorium until a room previously used for a storage area was converted to a classroom, Jacobs said.

In 1981, the district tried to implement year-round schooling at five of its elementary schools.

The effort was discontinued after a group of Latino parents won a preliminary injunction halting the plan the day before the program was to start. The preliminary injunction was issued on the grounds that the district had not given them sufficient notice of the year-round plan and therefore not enough time to respond.