Year-Round School Foes Fail Ballot Bid in Newhall

Opponents of year-round elementary school classes in the Newhall School District have failed in an effort to put the issue before voters in June.

The Los Angeles County registrar-recorder turned down a 8,227-signature petition Wednesday because only 5,454 signatures were found to be valid, said J. Michael McGrath, Newhall’s district school superintendent.

If the petitioners had obtained the required 6,870 valid signatures, voters would have decided in a June 1 special election whether to implement multitrack classes.

“I’m very frustrated,” said Linda Garofalo of Valencia, who led the petition drive that ended Dec. 10. “It’s hard to believe that 35% of our signatures were invalid.”

McGrath said he was pleased with the outcome because the election would have cost $76,000 and year-round classes will begin as scheduled in July at Valencia Valley and Wiley Canyon, two of the six schools in the overcrowded district.

Enrollment at each school now exceeds 900 pupils. The campuses were meant to accommodate only 600.

“Year-round schools are the most cost-effective and educationally sound method of dealing with overcrowding until we can catch up with student growth by building schools,” McGrath said.

In each of the past four years, about 250 students have joined the school district, McGrath said. Converting the two schools to year-round schedules will compensate for the growing student body and maintain class sizes at about 29 students each.

Because 30% of the district’s students will attend multitrack classes, the district will be eligible for $5.5 million in state funds that will go toward building a new school, scheduled to open in 1995.

Under the Newhall multitrack plan, calendars are staggered so that four groups of students attend classes for 60 school days, then take 20-day vacations throughout the year.

Parents of Wiley Canyon students have already chosen tracks for their children, and parents of Valencia Valley children will select tracks Jan. 23, McGrath said.

Year-round classes are also planned for the remaining four Newhall schools. Peachland and Old Orchard schools will be year-round in 1994, and Newhall and Meadow schools will follow in 1995, McGrath said.

Garofalo said she and others object to the new system because it will disrupt families that have children in both the Newhall elementary schools and secondary schools in the Hart district, which is on a traditional schedule.

Also, only one teacher will teach each grade level per track, Garofalo said, making it difficult to accommodate students with different skill levels.

“It’s going to be a middle-of-the-road education,” Garofalo said. “I don’t want that for my children.”