Crowding, Chaos Don’t Materialize as School Resumes : Monroe High: One-third of the students fail to return from vacation, lessening the impact of anticipated larger classes.

The first bell of a new school year jangled through the half-empty halls at James Monroe High School on Monday, and math teacher Joe Niedelman was no happier than his students to see the end of summer vacation.

“I hate it. I want my summer vacation back,” said Niedelman, who was having trouble adjusting to a new year-round schedule that ended the summer break two weeks early.

The sight of empty desks in classrooms that were expected to be overflowing showed that students were also finding it difficult to adjust. Class sizes at Monroe are expected to grow from 33 or 34 last year to 40 this year, but overall attendance on the first day at the Sepulveda high school was down one-third from the 2,450 students who were expected. Halls that should have been full of students seeking schedule changes were uncrowded.

The Los Angeles Unified School District began year-round schedules districtwide for the first time. Although more common in other parts of the district, the schedules are new in most areas of the San Fernando Valley. And in the wake of teacher layoffs, classes will be larger this year than in the past.

Despite predictions of chaos and overloaded classrooms, students and teachers--Niedelman excepted--said that Monday was no worse than any other first day of school, and that it probably was a little better than most.

The missing students, school officials said, will straggle in over the next few weeks as family vacations end and students realize that school really does start in August this year.

“For a lot of people, it was just denial,” said Denise Wilcox, who coordinates the school’s English as a Second Language and new magnet programs. “They didn’t think we were really going to start until September. Last week the phones were ringing off the hook with people asking, ‘When does school start? When does school start?’ ”

School officials had planned for the worst. After classes were dismissed in June, administrators and teachers scrambled for extra desks and materials.

“We’ve got contingency programs up the kazoo,” Wilcox said, explaining that the parents of every student not in class Monday will be called to remind them that school is in session.

Once they do show up, late students will be as much as two or three weeks behind, slowing down classmates as teachers review information to bring latecomers up to speed, Wilcox said.

“We’re going to have to expect them to put in an extra effort,” she said.

Many of those absent are ESL students, who make up about one-third of the school’s enrollment.

In Elias Andrade’s first- and second-period ESL classes, only 14 of 24 students showed up. He doesn’t expect the rest until after Labor Day, when some will return from family trips to Mexico.

“Hopefully they’ll catch up--hopefully,” he said.

The dread over crowded classes was offset in part by the enthusiasm surrounding the opening of the school’s magnet program in law and government, the first of its kind in the state. But some said problems will mount as school gets under way and the temperature reaches high levels in classrooms that aren’t air-conditioned. “The demeanor will change when the heat hits,” history teacher Sheila Deming said.