21,000 Seats Available in 2nd Open Enrollment : Education: Valley schools have space for 9,754 in the annual registration. Taft High School, with 800, has the most openings and plans to distribute flyers and conduct tours.

Almost 21,000 empty classroom seats in the Los Angeles Unified School District are up for grabs in the second annual round robin for open enrollment, a program that lets parents pick their children’s school.

The largest number of openings are in schools in the Westside and in the west San Fernando Valley, where the school-age populations have declined in recent years.

The open enrollment period, which ends June 9, allows parents to register their children in any school with openings. If more students apply to a school than there are seats available, then individual lotteries will be conducted June 12, district officials said.

The openings include 9,754 seats at 120 San Fernando Valley schools, which account for nearly half of the district’s openings.

Assemblywoman Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), who authored the legislation enacted in 1993, said the program is designed to encourage schools to become more entrepreneurial in attracting students and to give parents more choice in selecting educational programs that best suit their children. “I am hearing that parents are absolutely delighted,” she said.

The largest number of school openings--800--are at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, which is distributing flyers and conducting tours extolling its academic, athletic and extracurricular programs.

School officials said they hope to persuade local movie theaters to screen notices of the openings.

“If people wish to come here, we’re telling them we have room,” said Howard Reisbord, Taft assistant principal of student services. The school last year offered 600 openings and gained 488 new students--the largest group of students out of 9,810 districtwide who switched campuses in the first year of open enrollment.

Marshall High School in Los Feliz has the second-highest number of seats available--400. Grant and Birmingham high schools, both in Van Nuys, also have a large number of openings--384 and 350, respectively.

The most overcrowded schools in the district, where few if any seats are offered for open enrollment, are in South-Central and East Los Angeles, said Joyce Peyton, district director of school utilization. Several elementary schools in densely populated areas of the central and eastern San Fernando Valley also are closed to transfer students. Children living within the boundaries of the school must be accommodated first, as well as siblings of students already enrolled.

One of the most popular Valley schools--Carpenter Avenue Elementary in Studio City--already has a waiting list of 380 names for 25 open seats. Principal Joan Marks said the names were submitted by parents at a series of monthly orientations held since November. She said she was surprised when about 20 more parents showed up on the first day of open enrollment Monday.

All names submitted through the application period until June 9 will have equal chances of being selected in the lottery June 12. Last year, about 300 names were submitted for the five open seats, Marks said.

She attributed the popularity of the school, which has a current enrollment of about 1,000--to consistently high scores on a variety of tests, heavy involvement by parents, an innovative curriculum and team approach to teaching. Area realtors said that guaranteed enrollment in the school helps sell homes quickly in the neighborhood.

Because of the popularity of some schools, many parents submit applications for their children at several sites. Random-selection drawings will determine the order of eligibility on waiting lists, until all openings are filled, district officials said. If, during a drawing, one sibling’s name is selected for a transfer, all siblings who applied to the same school also will be issued transfers.

The number of students participating in the transfer program last year amounted to less than 2% of the district’s student population. Almost 400 students previously enrolled in private schools transferred to city schools following implementation of the program, district officials said.

Alpert said the competition among schools to attract students is expected to spur development of more innovative programs, although she said it is too soon to assess results.

“If a school has a dwindling enrollment, it will have to change in order to compete for the same clients,” she said.

* UP FOR GRABS

Schools, from elementary to high school, are listed along with the number of seats they have available. B8

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Open Enrollment Status of Schools

Elementary schools

Available Name of school Community Schedule seats Anatola Avenue Van Nuys LEARN 10 Andasol Avenue Northridge LEARN 25 Apperson Street Sunland LEARN 20 Arminta Avenue North Hollywood Year-round 0 Bassett Street Van Nuys Year-round 0 Beachy Avenue Pacoima Year-round 10 Beckford Avenue Northridge LEARN 100 Bertrand Avenue Reseda LEARN 0 Blythe Street Reseda LEARN 25 Brainard Avenue Lake View Terrace LEARN 30 Broadous Pacoima Year-round 0 Burbank Boulevard North Hollywood LEARN 0 Burton Street Panorama City Traditional 0 Calabash Street Woodland Hills LEARN 18 Calahan Street Northridge LEARN 60 Calvert Street Woodland Hills LEARN 100 Camellia Avenue North Hollywood Year-round 0 Canoga Park Canoga Park Year-round 0 Cantara Street Reseda LEARN 15 Canterbury Avenue Pacoima LEARN 0 Capistrano Avenue Canoga Park LEARN 75 Carpenter Avenue Studio City LEARN 25 Castlebay Lane Northridge LEARN 104 Chandler Van Nuys LEARN 50 Chase Street Panorama City Traditional 0 Chatsworth Park Chatsworth LEARN 40 Cohasset Van Nuys LEARN 10 Coldwater Canyon Avenue North Hollywood Year-round 0 Colfax Avenue North Hollywood LEARN 0 Danube Avenue Granada Hills LEARN 25 Darby Avenue Northridge LEARN 100 Dearborn Street Northridge LEARN 100 Dixie Canyon Avenue Sherman Oaks LEARN 12 Dyer Street Sylmar Year-round 29 El Dorado Avenue Sylmar LEARN 0 El Oro Way Granada Hills LEARN 30 Emelita Street Encino LEARN 30 Encino Encino LEARN 35 Erwin Street Van Nuys Traditional 0 Fair Avenue North Hollywood Year-round 0 Fernangeles Sun Valley Year-round 25 Fullbright Avenue Canoga Park LEARN 5 Gault Street Van Nuys LEARN 0 Germain Street Chatsworth LEARN 25 Gledhill Street North Hills LEARN 50 Glenwood Sun Valley LEARN 0 Granada Granada Hills LEARN 95 Gridley Street San Fernando Year-round 20 Haddon Avenue Pacoima Year-round 0 Hamlin Street Canoga Park LEARN 36 Harding Street Sylmar LEARN 50 Hart Street Canoga Park LEARN 0 Haskell Granada Hills LEARN 27 Hazeltine Avenue Van Nuys Year-round 0 Herrick Avenue Sylmar LEARN 20 Hubbard Street Sylmar LEARN 0 Justice Street Canoga Park LEARN 100 Kester Avenue Van Nuys LEARN 0 Kittridge Street Van Nuys Year-round 0 Knollwood Granada Hills LEARN 17 Lanai Road Encino LEARN 51 Langdon Avenue North Hills Year-round 0 Lankershim North Hollywood Year-round 0 Lassen North Hills LEARN 80 Lemay Street Van Nuys LEARN 20 Liggett Street Panorama City Traditional 0 Limerick Avenue Canoga Park LEARN 0 Lockhurst Drive Woodland Hills LEARN 40 Lorne Street Northridge LEARN 50 Maclay Primary Center Pacoima Year-round 0 Mayall Street North Hills LEARN 50 Melvin Avenue Reseda LEARN 50 Monlux North Hollywood LEARN 0 Montague Street Pacoima Year-round 0 Morningside San Fernando Year-round 0 Mountain View Tujunga LEARN 75 Napa Street Northridge Year-round 70 Nestle Avenue Tarzana LEARN 100 Nevada Avenue Canoga Park LEARN 10 Noble Avenue North Hills Year-round 0 O’Melveny San Fernando Year-round 0 Osceola Street Sylmar Year-round 15 Oxnard Street North Hollywood Year-round 0 Pacoima Pacoima Year-round 30 Parthenia Street North Hills LEARN 20 Pinewood Avenue Tujunga LEARN 100 Plainview Avenue Tujunga LEARN 100 Plummer North Hills Year-round 0 Pomelo Drive Canoga Park LEARN 10 Ranchito Avenue Panorama City Year-round 0 Reseda Reseda LEARN 0 Rio Vista North Hollywood LEARN 10 Riverside Drive Sherman Oaks LEARN 10 Roscoe Sun Valley Year-round 0 San Fernando San Fernando Year-round 0 San Jose Street Mission Hills LEARN 0 Saticoy North Hollywood LEARN 0 Serrania Avenue Woodland Hills LEARN 50 Sharp Avenue Pacoima Year-round 15 Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks LEARN 29 Shirley Avenue Reseda LEARN 0 Stagg Street Van Nuys LEARN 60 Stonehurst Avenue Sun Valley LEARN 15 Strathern Street North Hollywood Year-round 0 Sunland Sunland LEARN 60 Sunny Brae Avenue Winnetka LEARN 5 Superior Street Chatsworth LEARN 60 Sylmar Sylmar Year-round 20 Sylvan Park Van Nuys Year-round 158 Tarzana Tarzana LEARN 100 Telfair Avenue Pacoima Year-round 10 Toluca Lake Toluca Lake LEARN 0 Topanga Topanga LEARN 5 Topeka Drive Northridge LEARN 125 Tulsa Street Granada Hills LEARN 30 Valerio Street Van Nuys Year-round 0 Van Gogh Street Granada Hills LEARN 13 Van Nuys Van Nuys Year-round 0 Vanalden Avenue Reseda LEARN 25 Vena Avenue Pacoima LEARN 0 Victory Boulevard North Hollywood Year-round 0 Vinedale Sun Valley LEARN 0 Vintage Street Fundamental North Hills LEARN 12 (K only) Welby Way Canoga Park LEARN 20 Wilbur Avenue Tarzana LEARN 50 Winnetka Canoga Park LEARN 40 Woodlake Woodland Hills LEARN 20 Woodland Hills Woodland Hills LEARN

Middle schools

Available Name of school Community Schedule seats Byrd Sun Valley Year-round 0 Columbus Canoga Park LEARN 150 Frost Granada Hills LEARN 200 Fulton Van Nuys LEARN 100 Hale Woodland Hills LEARN 189 Henry Granada Hills LEARN 125 Holmes Northridge Traditional 75 Lawrence Chatsworth LEARN 75 Maclay Pacoima Year-round 50 Madison North Hollywood LEARN 125 Millikan Sherman Oaks Traditional 300 Mount Gleason Sunland LEARN 40 Mulholland Van Nuys LEARN 125 Nobel Northridge LEARN 50 Northridge Northridge LEARN 30 Olive Vista Sylmar LEARN 30 Pacoima Pacoima Traditional 25 Parkman Woodland Hills LEARN 200 Porter Granada Hills LEARN 75 Portola Tarzana LEARN 125 Reed North Hollywood LEARN 5 San Fernando San Fernando Traditional 30 Sepulveda North Hills Traditional 200 Sun Valley Sun Valley Year-round 200 Sutter Canoga Park LEARN 150 Van Nuys Van Nuys Traditional 15

High schools

Available Name of school Community Schedule seats Birmingham Van Nuys LEARN 350 Canoga Park Canoga Park LEARN 200 Chatsworth Chatsworth Traditional 300 Cleveland Reseda LEARN 100 El Camino Real Woodland Hills LEARN 200 Granada Hills Granada Hills LEARN 200 Grant Van Nuys LEARN 384 Kennedy Granada Hills LEARN 150 Monroe North Hills traditional 100 North Hollywood North Hollywood LEARN 70 Polytechnic Sun Valley LEARN 30 Reseda Reseda LEARN 300 San Fernando Pacoima Traditional 150 Sylmar Sylmar LEARN 200 Taft Woodland Hills LEARN 800 Van Nuys Van Nuys Traditional 20 Verdugo Hills Tujunga LEARN 150

Note: LEARN schools begin one week before traditional calendar schools and typically have a three-week winter vacation, one week more than traditional calendar schools.

Source: Los Angeles Unified School District