Trustees OK All-Year Plan for 2 Schools in Newhall : Education: Officials cite crowding. Wiley Canyon and Valencia Valley elementary campuses will be the district’s first to convert.

Pressed to find space on crowded campuses, Newhall school authorities Tuesday approved the switch of two of their six elementary schools to year-round schedules next year.

Under the planned multitrack schedule adopted by the district’s Board of Trustees, students at Wiley Canyon and Valencia Valley elementary schools will attend school throughout the year in staggered groups beginning in the fall of 1993.

The two schools will become the first in the Newhall School District to convert to year-round campuses, with the rest projected to follow suit a few years thereafter.

The district, which serves about 4,800 students, has for several years considered converting to year-round schooling.

But an attempt to convert Meadows elementary school to a multitrack campus in 1989 was scuttled when dozens of angry parents, worried that their summer vacations would be spoiled, objected to the change.

According to a district study, Old Orchard and Peachland elementary schools could adopt the multitrack schedule as early as the fall of 1994, with the Meadows and Newhall campuses to follow a year later.

The trustees also approved the establishment of a magnet program for gifted students beginning this fall, a move that would create the first program of its kind in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The measure, adopted after extensive discussions Tuesday night, calls for district officials to begin hammering out the details or implementing the magnet program at Newhall elementary school.

But as a concession to opposition and concern from other school officials, teachers and some parents, district staff members will explore other options for meeting the needs of pupils identified as high achievers.