Court Cancels Year-Round School Program

A Superior Court judge Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction to shut down year-round schools in the Lynwood Unified School District, canceling the 3-week-old summer semester for 5,000 students.

Judge Kenneth W. Gale in Compton said the year-round program must close because the district failed to provide proper notice to parents of the change from a traditional September-to-June calendar.

The state Education Code required the district to publish three such notices, spaced one week apart, by Nov. 1, 1990, Gale ruled. The district’s first two notices made the deadline, but the third was not printed until Nov. 7.

The delay deprived parents of their rights because it gave them less time to circulate a petition to put the issue of year-round schools on the ballot, Gale told the crowded courtroom.

The judge also ruled that the wording of the notice was ambiguous and did not tell parents in plain terms that the year-round schooling was mandatory.

The district argued that its actions complied with state law and that it had also held numerous parent meetings to explain the changeover. The district will file an appeal to the order by this afternoon or early Thursday, attorney Warren Kinsler said.

Any appeal will not come in time to delay the order’s effect, however, and Kinsler said he would advise district officials to comply.

The district implemented year-round schooling July 1 at five schools to alleviate overcrowding. The district of 15,500 students has grown more than 13% in the past two years.

Closing the schools costs the district about $1 million a week in lost state funding, which is based on student attendance and employee salaries, Supt. Audrey Clarke said.

Members of the parents group that filed the suit were ecstatic. The grass-roots group, Parents in Education, had conducted bake sales and sold homemade tacos to hire an attorney. They packed the courtroom and cheered when the judge issued his ruling.

Parents complained that their children were on different tracks, making it impossible to coordinate family plans. Other parents faulted the district mostly for how it handled the schedule change. “There was no consideration for the parents or their families,” parent Victor Riehle said. “It was take it or leave it.”