District Wrestles With Crowding at High Schools : Education: The options include multitrack schedules at 25 campuses and using portable classrooms. The proposals are expected to spark debate.

Overcrowding at Los Angeles secondary schools has become so acute that the district is considering converting up to 25 campuses to multitrack schedules to alleviate a projected shortage of 8,600 seats for the coming school year.

Setting up portable classrooms at crowded junior and senior high schools was another option included in a report presented Monday to the Los Angeles Board of Education. Schools were also urged to submit creative proposals to solve the space crunch.

More classroom space is urgently needed “to prevent a difficult housing problem from becoming a full-blown crisis,” Joyce Peyton, a district administrator who helped compile the report, told the board.

Peyton said the district expects 13,500 new secondary school students by 1993 and must increase capacity at schools by 23% to meet the demand. Under a multitrack system, campuses can accommodate up to one-third more pupils by dividing the student body into groups that attend school on staggered schedules, with one group on vacation at all times.

Overcrowding is most acute at junior and senior high schools in the east San Fernando Valley, South-Central Los Angeles and southeast, she added.

In part, the crowded conditions at secondary schools reflect the movement through the system of children who poured into the elementary schools several years ago.

The district expects overcrowding will occur at more high schools as students are bused from campuses already at capacity. In addition, high school students who require special education programs will jump by 8,000. That will place a disproportionately large strain on the district because special education classes average 10 students each.

The district must also comply with a new state law that limits certain high school math and English classes to 20 students each.

The overcrowding comes when no junior or senior high schools are under construction and the district is desperately searching for alternatives.

“There aren’t a lot of choices, but the schools understand the situation we are in and they want to do something,” Peyton said.

In a controversial decision aimed at relieving overcrowding, the district voted earlier this year to convert all of its approximately 645 campuses into year-round schools by July, 1991.

Monday’s report took the concept of year-round schools further, suggesting that overcrowded high schools also implement multitrack programs.

About 160 elementary schools, 10 junior highs and four senior highs have already implemented year-round programs.

Because of the logistic difficulties in coordinating football games, after-school activities and exams for advance placement in college, putting high schools on multitracks is expected to spark debate.

At Monday’s meeting, several board members raised concerns about the lack of air conditioning at schools where the multitrack system might be implemented.

On Dec. 13, the district will receive a list of schools under consideration for multitrack schedules and a report addressing solutions to overcrowding at all schools. The board is expected to take final action Jan. 14.

In other action, plans to build a junior high school in the Pico-Beaudry area moved one step closer when the school board adopted an environmental impact report that provided for the relocation of up to 120 residents who will be displaced by the construction.

“This is an example of the community working together,” said school Supt. Bill Anton. He described the action as precedent-setting and said the agreement involves the school district, a community group called United Neighbors of Temple-Beaudry and developers of a mammoth retail, commercial and residential project called Central City West.

Developers agreed to build several low-income apartment buildings for people who live on the site where the school district wants to build Belmont Junior High School. In return, the school board agreed to give up plans to build the school on land owned by the developers that was to become part of the development.

District officials said the agreement marks the first time the school board has worked successfully with displaced residents. In South-Central Los Angeles, attempts by the district to condemn homes to build schools have incurred the wrath of homeowners.

In this case, the relocation plan drew the approval of Mauricia Miranda, president of the homeowners group, who has lived in Pico-Beaudry for 21 years.

“Nobody wants to lose their house, but I’m happy. They’ve promised we will have an equally nice apartment.”