SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Panel Opens Door to Year-Round School

Capistrano Unified School District trustees Tuesday night voted to notify the state superintendent’s office that they may implement a mandatory year-round school program beginning next year.

But district officials said the possibility of instituting year-round school is still up in the air.

“Even if there’s the remotest chance we might start a year-round program, we must notify the state,” said district spokeswoman Jacqueline Cerra, adding that this is the third year that Capistrano Unified officials have contemplated mandatory year-round school. “But it doesn’t mean we’re going to add programs. We could or we could not.”

District officials are waiting to see whether a state bond measure passes in November. The bond measure would help finance 10 school construction projects in the district. Mandatory year-round school will be an option if that bond measure fails and if other state funding falls short, according to a memo to the board from assistant superintendent William Eller.

The district currently operates two voluntary year-round elementary programs at Ambuehl School in San Juan Capistrano and Las Palmas School in San Clemente. Children attend school for six to eight weeks at a stretch, then take a two- or four-week break three times a year.

In recent school discussions, board members have advocated expanding the year-round program to include more children and moving the program up to the junior high school level. The board also has approved a community education program to inform parents, students and the media about the pros and cons of year-round school.

A total of 752 students are enrolled in the district’s two programs, and at Las Palmas, administrators reported a waiting list. The year-round schedule has also made it possible for the class size at Las Palmas to be lowered to about 20 students per teacher.

And parents of children involved in the program also are singing the praises of year-round school.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Susan Blum, who added that the shorter vacation break made the transition to a different grade level easier for her two children.

Kurt Wyman, a construction worker from Dana Point, drives his children to San Clemente each day, just so they can participate in the program. Wyman said he prefers the year-round schedule because he can take his family on vacations during the winter months, when construction work is slow.

“Year-round is a terrible name for it,” Wyman said. “It sounds like the kids are in hell all year, when really they get more breaks.”