Voting to Begin on 1993-94 School Schedule : L.A. Unified: Parents and employees will decide on a year-round or a September-to-June calendar. Ballots start going out today.

Los Angeles school principals swung into high gear this week, scheduling community meetings for parents and staff, and preparing ballots for a vote on the 1993-94 school calendar.

Parents and employees at each high school complex will choose between the traditional September-to-June calendar or the current year-round calendar for the coming school year, under a plan approved by the Los Angeles Board of Education May 3.

A high school complex comprises a high school and the elementary and junior high schools that send students to it. A majority vote of all the parents and employees in the complex will determine the calendar that will be used at all of the schools in the complex, according to district guidelines released to principals this week.

The schools that are on “multi-track” year-round schedules to alleviate overcrowding will not be able to change calendars. Most of these schools--about a third of the district total--are in the central and eastern parts of the school district, but a few are on the Westside. The multi-track schools are in session throughout the year, with a quarter of the students on vacation at any given time.

The ballots, which will start going out today, offer a simple choice between the two calendars. The traditional calendar would run from Sept. 7 through June 14 with a two-week winter vacation, a one-week spring break and a three-month summer vacation. The so-called year-round calendar, used throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District for the past two years, would begin Aug. 16 and run through June 30 with an eight-week winter vacation and a six-week summer vacation.

The traditional calendar was formally approved as a schedule option by the school board on Monday, but the change remains subject to review by the teachers and administrators unions. Under the unions’ contracts with the school district, scheduling matters are subject to negotiation.

The district’s voting procedure calls for each school to send out letters to parents and staff this week to advise them when informational meetings will be held, and how they can obtain a ballot.

Each school may choose how it will get the ballots to parents. Some Westside principals said they will mail the ballots to parents, while others said the ballots would be sent home with students.

Most schools don’t have enough money to mail the ballots, so they can have parents pick them up at the school or send them home with students, said Joyce Peyton, the district’s director of school utilization.

Peyton said parents will be issued one ballot per student. The parent of a junior high student going on to high school this fall will receive a ballot from the junior high school. The same procedure will apply for an elementary student going to a junior high this fall. Children who are bused from outlying areas because of overcrowding will receive a ballot from the school where they are enrolled.

To be counted, ballots must be returned to schools by May 25. The votes from each school will be tabulated, and the results from the district’s 49 high school complexes will be reported to the board on June 1.

Merle Price, principal of Palisades High School, said volunteers from the school’s PTA will help stuff envelopes today to get the ballots out in the mail. The mailing will be paid for with money raised by a booster club, he said.

At Short Avenue Elementary School, Principal Carole Rosenblum said she had already advised parents in a newsletter last week of the impending vote. Rosenblum said she would probably send the ballots and a letter home with students because of a lack of money for mailing, and also because all information for parents typically goes home with students.

At University High, letters and ballots were also being prepared to go out in the mail, said Principal Jack Moscowitz. “We’ll get it done,” he said, noting the time pressure to get both the balloting done and prepare for summer school.

Times staff writer Henry Chu contributed to this story.