VAN NUYS : Alternatives to All-Year School Cited

Teachers opposed to converting Van Nuys High School to a year-round campus said Thursday that reducing enrollment or installing portable classrooms on nearby property would prevent the need to go year-round to relieve overcrowding.

Van Nuys is scheduled to enroll its first freshman class in 1996-97 under a districtwide plan to add ninth-graders to all high schools. To accommodate them, the school would probably have to host students year-round, rotating teen-agers onto campus on staggered schedules.

But Charlie Wilken, one of several teachers opposed to a scheduling change, said he has come up with several proposals that would eliminate the need to operate on a year-round calendar.

One solution, said Wilken, the school’s teachers union representative, would be for the Los Angeles Unified School District to make use of a piece of property that it owns several blocks away from the school.

“Next week, I’ll be meeting with the district’s people to talk about using the farm across the street from Valley Presbyterian Hospital and putting six bungalows on it,” Wilken said.

He added that he would like to see those bungalows turned into an agricultural academy for Van Nuys students, but said the extra classroom space could at least relieve the overcrowding expected once ninth-graders are included.

Wilken will also suggest reducing the number of students at the high school by about 14%, a move that would force students at Van Nuys and its three specialized magnet programs to attend other schools.

One of those magnet programs is a joint medical studies program with Valley Presbyterian Hospital. Some teachers contend that the year-round system would hurt the three magnet programs by making it impossible for students to cross-register among them--currently one of the main attractions of the school.

But Joyce Peyton, director of the district’s Office of School Utilization, said the district does not have the money to cover the $30,000 to $100,000 that each new bungalow would cost.

She also said that reducing the student population at Van Nuys would only overcrowd neighboring campuses such as Grant and Birmingham high schools.

“I don’t know that we should be taking kids out of Van Nuys and putting them where that causes (problems) at another school,” said Peyton, who is scheduled to meet with Wilken next week.

She added that the plot of land across from the hospital has already been reserved for an expansion of Van Nuys’ medical studies program, which the district cannot afford at the moment.