Summertime Dues : Youngsters Brave the Heat as Year-Round Classes Begin

About 10,000 Antelope Valley youngsters braved 105-degree weather Monday for the start of year-round classes in Lancaster and Palmdale.

Air-conditioning problems delayed the opening of one school and caused problems at another.

Nine of 17 schools in the Palmdale School District and five of 14 in the Lancaster School District began classes under year-round schedules.

All have air-conditioned or cooled classrooms. But that did not mean everything went smoothly.

Because of delays in installing new air conditioning, the opening of a sixth Lancaster school, Piute Intermediate, was postponed until Aug. 12. School officials announced that decision in advance of Monday’s heat.

Because Sunnydale Elementary in Lancaster, which did open, had too few air-conditioned classrooms, school officials had to bus 189 of the school’s more than 600 students to another campus. School officials predicted that will continue several weeks while Sunnydale’s cooling work is completed.

Otherwise, school officials said, students were advised to drink a lot of water and not to play too hard outside.

Lancaster had a high of 105 degrees at 3 p.m., and similar temperatures were expected today, the National Weather Service said.

Officials noted that the temperature often tops 100 in September, when students on traditional schedules return to classes.

“This is kind of normal heat for the desert,” said Forrest McElroy, school superintendent in Palmdale.

“We were not caught off guard,” said David Alvarez, the Lancaster superintendent.

Antelope Valley schools are moving to year-round schedules mainly to fit more students into existing classrooms. Six of the nine Palmdale schools opening Monday were new to year-round classes, as were three of the five in Lancaster.

The air-conditioning delays at Piute and Sunnydale result from the Lancaster district’s having to apply for state grants to pay for the work. Sunnydale students are being bused to cooled classrooms at Sierra Elementary, which will not have its own students until September.