A Break for Some, a Pain for Others : Education: Many parents’ fears of bored children and costly day care have been confirmed. But others find adapting to L.A. schools’ winter recess is easier than they expected.

For thousands of students and parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District, a winter break stretching from Christmas until Valentine’s Day has been a novel and, in some cases, trying, experience.

Many parents, worried about the prospect of bored kids, forgotten lessons and expensive child care, had some of their fears confirmed. Some could not find affordable day care or day camps, and others had to deal with their children’s disappointment over poorly attended sports practices.

Others have found adapting to the district’s new year-round schedule has not been as difficult as they imagined it would be, and a few say they even found reasons to like the eight-week winter vacation better than the traditional long summer break.

“Everybody was a little nervous” at first, said Marya Ann Garvey, president of the Ocean View Council PTA, a group of parent teacher associations based at several Westside schools. “But now that it’s come to pass, it seems to be going fine.”

This year marked the first time that every school in the district began operating on some variation of the year-round calendar, adopted last April by the Los Angeles school board in an effort to relieve school overcrowding. The system allows maximum use of classrooms by rotating groups of students through campuses throughout the year. Instead of having the traditional 12-week summer vacation, the majority of students now have eight weeks off in the winter and six weeks in the summer.

Approximately 27,000 students participated in “intersession,” a modified version of summer school offered during the winter break, said program coordinator Doris Dillard. The classes, offered at 20 campuses, were open to junior and senior high schoolers needing remedial instruction to pass competency exams, and to students who needed to make up low grades in such courses as math, foreign language and science.

Instructors teaching advanced placement courses set up special study sessions so students would not be at a disadvantage when the exams are given in May. The district also offered 11 free college financial aid workshops to help high schoolers meet deadlines during the break.

For those students not in school, recreational programs were offered throughout the district. Doug Grogan, vice president of operations and camping for the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, said YMCA child care centers and day and overnight camps have been filled, with approximately 1,000 youths a week participating in the day camps alone.

“We were really nervous about it because we didn’t know how families were going to respond,” said Grogan. But “we’re finding that people are increasingly responding just as they would (to) a summer break.”

Still, there were communications gaps that resulted in many parents being unable to find recreation for their children and day camp coordinators faced with under-enrolled programs.

“The programs are there as far as I can see (but) it’s finding out about them that has been difficult,” said Diane Hill, coordinator of a Pacific Palisades day camp offering writers’ workshops, dance and other activities that had openings until a few weeks ago. “I was really shocked that we weren’t full sooner. I think it’s just taken a while for people to accept this two-month break and how to manage it.”

Others attributed low turnouts for day camps and other special programs to the recession and unemployment, speculating that many out-of-work adults have been able to stay home to take care of their children.

But for some working parents, such as Elizabeth Rodriguez-Barahona, staying home was not an option.

“It’s been hard to manage,” said Rodriguez-Barahona, a secretary whose husband is out of work. She said she could not afford the $300 a month some child care workers wanted to charge for tending her 9-year-old daughter. Programs at the YMCA near her Boyle Heights home also would have strained her budget.

Sometimes she had to leave her daughter home alone with crayons and paper to keep her busy until an adult arrived. “Finally, I said I can’t have this worry hanging over my head. I had to send her to my sister in Chino. I won’t see her until school begins. . . . I don’t like this at all.”

Rodriguez-Barahona said she found more affordable recreational programs available between June and August, the traditional summer vacation months.

Other parents complained about sports practices being canceled because not enough team members showed up to play.

“For those of us who have kids in those sports, we’ve got some problems,” said Pam Bruns, whose 14-year-old daughter lost some opportunities for soccer practice at Palisades High because of poor attendance.

Sharon Decker, who has three children in district schools, sent her 15-year-old daughter Lauren to a special out-of-state Girl Scout camp during the summer break, which ended in mid-August. But her daughter, who attends Venice High School, had to miss the first week of school because the camp operated on the traditional summer schedule.

“The rest of the world isn’t equipped for this yet,” said Decker. “I really prefer the traditional summer calendar.”

Several parents and advanced placement students who were concerned they would miss out on valuable instruction over the break said that the special courses offered throughout the district during the winter recess have been helpful. Many children said they brought home schoolwork and suggested reading lists to keep busy during their time off.

But many parents said they were still concerned that students, particularly young ones, would forget what they learned over the vacation and waste valuable time reviewing when they should be moving on to new lessons.

“I was hoping for smaller breaks,” said Hill, who has a 9-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. “We’re at a time when we’re really concerned about student achievement and I don’t know what these two long breaks mean to us as far as our students. I keep asking and nobody can tell me.”

Decker said that despite her misgivings about the new schedule, it has had some benefits.

“It’s been nice halfway through the year to have a break,” said Decker, who has had to arrange activities for three children, all of whom have been on winter break. “It’s given us the extra time after the holiday to catch our breath and do things. The kids say they’ve enjoyed it.”

The winter break meant there was time for one of her daughters to get her wisdom teeth pulled, and for the other children to make it to doctor’s appointments. Decker said that when the family went to the Crestline ski resort for a short vacation, there were no lines because the children of many would-be skiers had gone back to school.

Dan Lewis, a 15-year-old 10th-grader at Dorsey High, is one of many students who say they haven’t missed the old school schedule. Eight weeks off in the winter to sleep late, hang out with friends and get ready for the new semester is fine with him.

“I say don’t rush it,” Lewis advised. “School’s going to be there. It’s not going anywhere.”