SANTA ANA : Trustees to Study Year-Round Classes

To alleviate future crowding at four schools, the Santa Ana Unified School District board has decided to study whether to switch them to a year-round schedule starting in the 1993-94 school year.

The schools to be considered for year-round schedules are Remington and Sepulveda elementary schools and Carr and Spurgeon intermediate schools.

The decision made on Tuesday initiates a process under which the board will seek community input before making a final decision on Jan. 12.

During a presentation to the board, the staff reported that all the schools except Remington now exceed the numbers of students for which they were built and that enrollment growth will make crowding over the next several years worse.

For example, Carr now accommodates 1,670 students, 140 more than it was designed to hold. Expanding the school’s capacity to 1,836 students by adopting a year-round schedule will help offset burgeoning enrollment growth. However, the student population will exceed even the higher capacity by about 480 students by the 1996-97 school year.

Remington, which is not overcrowded, is the only elementary school in the Sierra Intermediate School vicinity that is not on a year-round schedule. Switching to a year-round calendar will enable parents with children at both schools to coordinate their schedules and take vacations at the same time.

In July, Lathrop and Sierra intermediate schools adopted year-round schedules.

Parents interested in attending informational meetings about the proposed changes should call their children’s schools for dates and times. School district spokeswoman Diane Thomas said the meetings should begin within a few weeks.

The board will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes on Nov. 24.