GLENDALE : Students Ask About New Evening School

Students who prefer to sleep or work in the morning and attend their classes later in the day are already seeking information about Glendale’s new Evening High School, scheduled to open in the fall, officials said this week.

Although registration does not begin until March, Principal Don Duncan said students have begun calling a special phone number to inquire about the new school, which will hold classes between about 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. (2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Fridays) and use a new classroom building under construction at Glendale High School.

“Most of the students see an advantage to attending classes in the evenings,” Duncan said. “One student told me he wants to become a lawyer specializing in international law, and as part of his research he calls Washington, D. C. . . . But he can’t call at 3 p.m., when he gets out of school, because everybody’s gone home.”

Glendale school officials came up with the idea of an evening campus to alleviate crowding at the district’s three high schools and to offer students more personalized instruction. Last year, a task force of parents, students, teachers and school officials created a preliminary plan for the school, which was approved by the school board last July.

Enrollment at the school is voluntary, and all students in the Glendale Unified School District who will be in grades nine through 12 in the fall are eligible. The school needs at least 200 to 250 students for its first year, and may hold up to 600 students in future years. Faculty members will be chosen in late spring.

The Evening High School will have a full range of classes much like the daytime high schools, as well as activities such as yearbook, newspaper, dances and awards programs. However, it will not offer CIF sports programs.

School board member Jeanne Bentley, who visited an evening high school campus in Washington state to learn more about such programs in 1993, said she is confident the program will be successful.

Information on enrollment in the Evening High School can be obtained by calling (818) 241-2378.