Glendale Plans Evening High School to Ease Crowding

In the fall of 1995, a new kind of high school is scheduled to open in Glendale, one where classes for the teen-age students begin about 2 in the afternoon and end at 9 p.m.

It is expected to be one of the first of its kind in California. Less than a dozen schools that hold evening classes for regular high school students are known to exist in the nation.

Officials of the Glendale Unified School District--which is ready to burst at the seams with about 29,000 students--hope that the innovative new high school will relieve overcrowding by making better use of the district’s three high school campuses, one of which may house the evening school.

Staggering the school day is just one way of coping with overcrowding, but some say that Glendale’s program and others like it offer a look at how many secondary schools will operate one day.

“People need their institutions to be as flexible as they are. What you’re seeing is schools starting to respond to that,” said Michael Casserly, who heads the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation’s largest public school systems.

In Glendale, district officials had considered a year-round program for their three high schools to cope with rapidly rising enrollment. But they decided against offering year-round sessions, which are sometimes unpopular with families.

Another option--installing portable classrooms--was weighed, but the district determined that its high schools lacked enough space.

A task force of parents, students, teachers and school officials helped develop a preliminary plan for an evening high school in Glendale that was unanimously approved by the school board in July.

Reaction to the voluntary afternoon-to-night school program has been mixed within the school system. The Glendale Teachers Assn. backed the plan. But on at least one campus, Glendale High School, the issue has polarized parents and students.

“The problem is students think this is a school for people who don’t have a clue, and the parents don’t want their children home all day without supervision,” said Candace Hakonsson, 16, a task force member who read more than 100 responses to a recent survey about the plan.

Details about the new high school are still subject to change, but are not likely to be altered much.

A site will be chosen by October from among the three high schools: Crescenta Valley, Glendale and Hoover. A principal will be named the following month.

Enrollment will be voluntary and all Glendale students in grades nine through 12 are eligible to attend. Classes would begin in September, 1995.

The district expects to draw a wide range of students--from those who are college-bound to those at risk of dropping out. The evening high school will accommodate between 200 and 600 students.

A typical set of classes will be offered in English, math, science, history and physical education. The evening school’s core curriculum will meet entrance requirements for the University of California, district officials said.

Advanced Placement and English as a second language instruction will probably be available, but shop classes and interscholastic sports will not be offered.

At other schools, extracurricular clubs meet during lunch or after the end of the day. Evening high school students will have similar choices to gather during dinner break, and before and after classes.

Whether the program succeeds or fails depends largely on how well everyone involved adapts to the change, some say.

“So much of this is related to how the community feels it can best address the problems of overcrowding,” said Harry Handler, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, now an adjunct professor of education at UCLA.

“There’s a key point here: It is voluntary,” he added.

Teachers and administrators in Glendale cite several advantages that students have in attending school late in the day: the chance to hold part-time jobs in the morning, easier access to school supplies such as computers, more personal attention from teachers and the ability to come to class wide awake.

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As Glendale School Board President Sharon Beauchamp put it, “Young people are just like adults. There are day young people, and there are night young people.”

It is rowdy young people--and continuous noise and traffic at night--that has some residents near Hoover High School worried.

“I don’t have a problem with the concept of it,” said Madeleine Hibbs, 45, a mother of two who lives across the street from the campus. “This could well be the perfect solution for us. My concern is if this will be at Hoover High.

“I don’t know what the profile of these students is going to be. I can only think it will be a cross-section of students already in Glendale schools.”

A recent survey of 719 parents and 1,182 students indicates that 76% of parents would not send their children to evening high school, and 67% of students do not want to go.

One parent, Susan Nowicke, told the task force that she wanted to stop the program for fear that students will not learn as much and will not see their families at home.

But Glendale school officials point out that 302 students showed an interest in attending--more than enough for Evening High School to open as planned.

“You need to go back and ask the question, ‘Is there any reason why facilities should only be used during the day and not be in operation on weekends and at night?’ ” said district Supt. Robert Sanchis.

The only state requirements for opening such a school are that no one under the ninth grade can be enrolled; parental permission is mandatory, and a certain amount of time in the school day must be reserved for instruction.

“There’s no law that says (high school) has to take place during a certain time of day,” said Susie Lange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. “Our opinion is this is what local control is designed for.”

In Las Vegas, Sunset High School was created 22 years ago as an evening school to provide an alternative that would help curb the dropout rate.

Gradually, the concept of evening education piqued the interest of other students looking for more personal attention, Principal Frank Roqueni said. Today, the high school’s 700 to 800 students say that is the No. 1 reason why they attend night classes.

In Lacey, Wash., River Ridge High School becomes New Century High at night for about 200 students.

Sixteen-year-old Desiree Monroy does her homework either after school or first thing in the morning.

“I learn a lot more,” she said. “I don’t sleep through classes anymore. I’m more alert by that time.”

Hoover Principal Don Duncan visited Sunset and New Century high schools this year and last year to learn more about them.

“Initially, the biggest challenge is to show students the advantage of going to school at night,” Duncan said. “This is not a continuation school. . . . That is not what this is.”