Year-Round Students Get Little Relief

Dismissing students early each day remains about the only relief for children sweltering in schools without air-conditioning, district officials said in a meeting Tuesday with parents from the San Fernando Valley.

The state budget crunch has eliminated any hope for immediate funds to install air-conditioning at the 23 Valley schools that began year-round classes earlier this month, said Sara A. Couglin, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent responsible for schools in the north Valley.

Parent and student complaints about the new year-round schedule has escalated in the past two weeks as temperatures in some Valley classrooms have exceeded 100 degrees.

More than 50 parents attended the meeting with district officials at the Fernangeles Elementary School in Sun Valley, where about half the classes have air-conditioning. A parent at the school initiated a protest last week, calling for others to keep their children home until money is found to install air-conditioning in all the classrooms there.

“This is becoming a community issue,” said Denise Toone, the parent who organized the protest last week. “These are our children.”

Fernangeles School officials said there has not been a significant dip in attendance this week.

Couglin said she suggested to area principals Monday that they start school as early as 7:30 a.m., with classes ending as early as 1 p.m. That schedule, which would require approval by school decision-making councils, would make students delay their lunch until 1 p.m., when class is over.

Schools now start as late as 8:20 a.m. and end as late as 2:50 p.m.

But many parents attending the meeting said the measure is not enough.

“Changing 20 or 30 minutes isn’t the solution,” said Maria Monreal, who has children in the first and sixth grades at Fernangeles. “It’s just too hot.”

A total of 64 schools began the year-round schedules this month. The school board agreed to the controversial schedule change to make more classroom seats available in the fast growing district of 610,000 students. The remaining schools in the district convert to year-round operation next July.