Protest by 200 Parents Stalls Inglewood Plan for All-Year Schooling

Confronted by more than 200 angry parents, Inglewood school trustees delayed action Tuesday on sweeping plans to implement year-round schedules at elementary and junior high schools and to shuffle students to other campuses in a bid to relieve over crowding.

In a public hearing that stretched for more than three hours, dozens of parents criticized the board for not including parents in the decision-making process. Parents said they were notified last week of the district’s recommendations, which called for the gradual implementation of year-round education beginning in July and the conversion of junior high schools to middle schools.

“We need to be involved in this thing,” said parent Howard Moore, who drew loud applause from the audience.

Stephanie Alexander, PTA president at Parent Elementary School, added: “It concerns me greatly that you would demonstrate such blatant disregard for the people who elected you in office.”

School board President Lois Hill-Hale apologized to parents for the short notice but said the issues facing the board were critical ones.

“This is the beginning of parental involvement for us,” she said. “We are not going to rush in this process.”

The board postponed action on the district’s recommendations until May 8. The proposals include:

* Implementing year-round education districtwide over the next two years in kindergarten through eighth grade, with Centinela Elementary School adopting the schedule July 1.

* Creating kindergarten-to-fifth-grade elementary schools and sixth-to-eighth-grade middle schools by reorganizing current elementary and junior high schools. The district now has 10 K-6 elementary schools, three K-8 elementary schools, two junior high schools, two high schools and one continuation high school.

The proposals were made last week by the district’s growth committee and a special consultant, the Sage Institute, hired to investigate overcrowding. A Sage Institute report said Inglewood schools are faced with a “significant projected increase in enrollment . . . thereby creating overcrowding conditions within the district.”

The problem is not new in Inglewood, which has seen its student population swell from 15,620 in 1986 to 16,400 this year. The city’s elementary enrollment rose so much in 1985 that administrators opened an emergency school in a local church hall for 106 kindergarten and first-grade pupils; the district is still borrowing classroom space from the church.

The next year, Kelso Elementary School adopted a year-round schedule to maximize classroom space, and Highland and Woodworth elementary schools followed soon afterward.

Since then, school officials have converted Oak Street and Payne elementary schools to year-round schedules and placed dozens of temporary classrooms on school playgrounds to absorb the steady waves of new students.

Alexander said she called an emergency meeting of parents Friday after she heard of the district’s proposals, which would convert Parent to a year-round school and change it from K-8 to K-5.

At the meeting, 110 parents signed a petition opposing the district’s plans because of a lack of notice and parental participation, Alexander said.