THE SOUTHLAND DELUGE : Coping With the Rain : Schools: Pupils spent another day inside, but there’s a bright side as teachers get to spend ‘quality time’ with smaller classes.

It happens after just about every downpour. The water flows down the slope, collects at the low point, and rises until it’s shin-deep.

“We call it Lake Valerio,” said Valerio Street Elementary School teacher Lesley Dwiggins of the scene Wednesday on the playground of the Van Nuys campus.

While motorists braved rain-slickened streets to get to work Wednesday morning, thousands of schoolchildren spent another rainy day cooped up inside classrooms and auditoriums, as Los Angeles was drenched by one of the strongest storms to hit the parched area in a century.

At Valerio, it seemed like a normal day in many ways. Students gathered in the auditorium and sang “Kum Ba Yah” in preparation for the school’s upcoming black history month program. Jorge Santini strummed his guitar and led his second-grade class in a rousing rendition of “Do You Want to Know a Secret”--the song made popular by the Beatles, sometimes referred to as the “Doo Dah Doo” song.

But the day was anything but regular. A classroom leak forced Santini to put sponges behind his chair to sop up water. Classrooms were less than full as parents apparently opted to keep their children home. Many students who did make it to school spent the morning drying out at their desks.

And of course there was that 20-foot-wide, 6-inch-deep body of water in the middle of the schoolyard.

“We had a virtual river, isolating groups of bungalows,” Principal Anais Ruiz said, adding that the phenomenon occurs during heavy rain because of the slope of the playground. Rather than try to wade across the yard, students in the 16 bungalow classrooms were rerouted around the perimeter of the school to get to the cafeteria and the bathrooms, Ruiz said.

Attendance at the 900-student school was down by more than a third, Ruiz said. Officials said that no districtwide attendance figures were available, but attendance was reported down about 50% in east San Fernando Valley schools. School was expected to open as scheduled Friday for the approximately 360,000 children currently out on winter break.

At Valerio, the rainy day schedule forced teachers to work in pairs, taking turns grabbing a bite and watching pupils during the three lunch periods.

Despite the inconveniences, the rainy weather had its good points. Yvette LeWinter, whose first- and second-grade class was only half full, said the low attendance Wednesday enabled her to spend some quality time with each of her students.

“They get pretty wild in the rain,” LeWinter said of the 13 students who showed. “But with so few kids, it shows me how wonderful it would be to have a smaller class. You can give them more individual attention.”

Not that she won’t mind seeing the sun again. Though her students have enjoyed the rain and change in routine, “rainy days in a row really do us in,” LeWinter said. “They (pupils) need to run around.” She’s having the children jog and dance in class until they can get back in the schoolyard.

“It’s boring being crowded in the auditorium,” said sixth-grader Undrae Pettaway. “Outside you have more space to play. I don’t like the rain.”

But despite the soggy clothes, leaky roofs and low attendance, the day seemed to work out fine. Dry sweat shirts stashed in a closet replaced those that had gotten wet. Teachers survived their lunchtime relays. The downpour turned into a light rain.

And the schoolyard puddle drained.