Year-Round Schedule Passes the Test of First Week : Hawthorne: District survives the summertime blues as first week of classes begins under new schedule. Students will have three one-month breaks throughout the calendar year.

Except for the problem with the electric fans, the first week of year-round classes in the Hawthorne School District went better than even some critics expected.

Only about 50 parents with children at Hawthorne Intermediate had to be reminded with phone calls that summer break was over. Just a few classes throughout the district ended up with too many students. And school officials, in a last-minute scramble to replace 550 fans that were too small, won a reprieve when classes started last Tuesday under mercifully overcast skies.

“It’s mind-boggling,” Hawthorne Intermediate Principal Cheryl Lampe said. “I’ve always had the luxury of the summer to work at getting things ready, cosmetic things: painting rooms, meeting with teachers, planning schedules. But there just hasn’t been that time. I’ve been working seven days a week on the master schedule. I’m just bone tired.”

Until last year, most of the district’s students attended classes from September to June, with a three-month summer break. Yukon Intermediate and Eucalyptus, Williams and Zela Davis elementary schools went year-round at the start of last school year.

Last January, trustees put the rest of the district on a year-round schedule, with students’ breaks scheduled in three one-month periods throughout the calendar year. Hawthorne Intermediate and Jefferson, Washington, Ramona and York elementary schools started year-round last week.

Under the new schedule, students are assigned to one of four tracks, which are staggered so that no more than three groups of students are in session at any one time. The system reduces district enrollment, which hovers at about 6,500 students, by a quarter.

Proponents of year-round schedules, which are already in place in Los Angeles, Lennox and parts of Inglewood, say that the calendar eases overcrowding and that the children are more likely to remember their lessons between breaks.

On the Ramona Elementary playground--so crowded last year that children had to be restricted by grade-level to certain parts of the grounds--lines for the tetherball and handball courts were short or nonexistent Wednesday afternoon.

A small group of parents, most of them affluent homeowners who have children at Ramona Elementary, tried to block the change with lawsuits. The suits, filed by two sets of parents, argued that year-round schooling was unnecessary and would interfere with child care and summer vacation plans. The parents dropped the suits last month when early rulings favored the district.

“We just felt to be able to win this, we were going to have to go on an appeal,” said James Sloey, an attorney representing three parents who opposed year-round schooling. “The cost and the money and everything involved, and the interest . . . (the parents) weren’t getting the support they thought they would have.”

About a dozen disgruntled parents moved or enrolled their children elsewhere, said Donald Carrington, assistant superintendent for education services.

Among them was Al La Mere, a plaintiff in one of the two dropped lawsuits. He arranged for after-school care in nearby Wiseburn School District so he could transfer his children there.

“I got away from it,” said La Mere, who is considering running for the Hawthorne school board in November. “It wasn’t the way I wanted to do things.”

Many of the parents who remained despite misgivings about year-round schooling recalled with sadness how the issue broke apart friendships and divided the district. But several looked forward to making the new calendar work.

“I know there are a lot of parents who have left because of year-round,” said Relda Childress, president of Ramona Elementary’s Parent-Teacher Assn. “But I have a strong board and we’re going to bring Ramona back to No. 1.”

To gear up for year-round schooling, administrators and teachers spent countless hours organizing new schedules, matching brothers and sisters in different schools on the same track, processing immunization reports and updating student files. Adding to the challenge, every track has its own registration and enrollment period and report card dates.

“Everything is done at least twice,” said Ramona Principal Susan Casillas. “We have two back to school nights, two open houses, two conference times. You always have to think, who’s here, who isn’t here.”

During the transition, students and teachers on Track C are in school for a mere 3 1/2 weeks before their first monthlong break. Finding meaningful lesson plans to cover fewer than 18 school days is not easy, said Nancy Herbst, an English teacher at Hawthorne Intermediate. Her students will spend their short semester reading short stories on the seasons, she said.

Still, most teachers seemed enthusiastic about the new calendar, despite its challenges.

“I really like it,” said Maria Nagy, a third-grade teacher at Ramona Elementary. “There is less crowding, fewer kids, lunch lines go a lot faster. On the yard, the kids have all this space to run around and there are not as many fights.”

But students who had never been on a year-round calendar spent much of last week grumbling about missed vacations and the loss of former classmates now on different tracks.

“I feel bad because my best friend is on Track B and she’s not in school right now,” said Hawthorne Intermediate student Anna Ponce, 13. “She tried to get on the same track as me, but her mom didn’t want her to change because her sister is on Track B.”

Heather Yang, a Ramona Elementary fifth-grader, said she had planned to spend the summer with her ailing grandmother in Korea. “My grandma expected me for two months,” she said. “I might be able to go during December, but I’ll only be able to go for one month.”

Some working parents were struggling to coordinate their schedules with their children’s. Others wondered how they would keep their children occupied during mid-year breaks. Many found themselves in fierce competition to get their children on tracks that offer vacation during the summer months.

But most conceded that year-round schooling would prove better in the end.

“At first, I was hesitant, worried about how it’s going to turn out--the organization in the school and at home with parents’ work,” said Milton Vega, 41, moments after dropping his daughters at Washington Elementary and Hawthorne Intermediate. “But probably in the long run it means good news because you’ll have fewer students in the classroom and on the playground and more attention from teachers.”