Educator Examines Why Night School Didn’t Make the Grade

Stepping down from his longtime job as principal of Glendale’s Hoover High School, Don Duncan was charged with establishing California’s first full-time evening high school for teen-agers.

For months, he tried to recruit the 200 students needed to open the innovative night school, which was planned to relieve classroom overcrowding. The school was to operate from 2 to 9 p.m., beginning in September.

But when only 34 teen-agers signed up, the Glendale Unified School District scrapped its plans.

Duncan now finds himself without a job as either principal of Hoover or the night high school. So in the meantime, Duncan is assigned to counsel at-risk youths, capping a lengthy career with the district that began in 1957, when he started as a teacher.

He had been principal of Hoover since 1974.

In an interview from the district’s main office, Duncan described what went wrong with the night school plans.

Question: What was it about the concept of an evening high school that first piqued your interest?

Answer: I served on a committee to look at facilities, use of grounds, year-round education, a lot of different things.

The superintendent and assistant superintendent had heard of an evening high school somewhere. Then Dr. [Donald] Empey, who is assistant superintendent of instruction, went to a conference about three summers ago and heard a presentation by Gail McBride from New Century High School [in Washington state].

I thought the concept was unique. It was different. It was something that had not ever occurred in California before.

Q: Was there a particular type of student you hoped it would serve?

A: No, we hoped to serve the general student body. There are students who need to work. There are students who would rather be in a smaller school environment, situations in a family where maybe in the daytime a student could help take care of a younger sibling, just a variety of things.

Q: When did it become clear you weren’t going to have enough students?

A: I had been to Roosevelt [Middle School] and talked to all the kids. There were about 13 kids who expressed interest. I gave them the registration manual, gave them the application form and so forth, and out of that we generated two kids probably the first part of April.

We did the same thing with Wilson Junior High and they had about the same number of kids. We came up with two or three of those out of that school.

I talked with all the Crescenta Valley High School students. They had a thing at lunchtime. Anybody that was interested in Evening High School could come and see me. I think one kid came up at that time. So I was getting the feeling that it wasn’t going to work.

Q: Do you think there was a single reason why there wasn’t interest, or do you think it was a combination of different reasons?

A: I think it was a combination of all those things that occurred: “It’s a good idea, but for somebody else’s kid.” “Well, I’ll wait and see how it goes. Maybe the following year.”

In some countries, in some of the ethnic backgrounds, the bad kids go to school in the evening.

Transportation. I know New Century provided bus transportation. Maybe that was a plus for getting themselves going. . . . Financially, that’s not something you can do down here.

Parents who don’t want their kids out at night. I’m sure the security kind of thing would be a part of that.

All those things.

Q: What are your feelings about Evening High School and how things turned out?

A: I’m sorry it didn’t occur. It was something, career-wise, I took a chance on doing. I felt it was an interesting challenge. I think the concept is still a good one. . . . Whether it can be pulled off here or locally or somewhere is something schools need to look at because schools throughout the state are getting more and more crowded.

Q: What is your job title with the district now?

A: I don’t really have a title. I’m working with student services, working with the at-risk program and also working with the career education part of it.

Students called at-risk are students that either didn’t end up in continuation schools at the present time, and I would go out and talk to them to see where they are, [or] students who have been expelled.

Q: Do you have any regrets about having stepped down as principal of Hoover High School?

A: Yeah, I have the regret that. . . . Well, I knew what I was getting into. I knew what the options were and I knew there was a chance it wasn’t going to fly and the district said, “Well, we are going to do this anyway.” If I had any feeling that it was not going to work then I would have preferred to stay at Hoover High School.

Q: Is the idea of Evening High School dead?

A: No, I think we’ve got to look at it and see if there’s a different approach. The problem is still there. The numbers of students are the problem and that problem hasn’t gone away. Whether there’s a different approach, a different thrust, the district will still look at that, not for this coming year, but down the line.

Q: How bad is the district’s overcrowding situation if something is not done soon?

A: Campuses are built to a reasonable maximum capacity, and Glendale and Hoover high schools are over that reasonable maximum capacity.

There’s a large number of students coming through grades nine through 12 for the next several years, so the numbers aren’t getting smaller.

Q: What is the worst-case scenario for the Glendale Unified School District in terms of overcrowding?

A: I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. It’s better than when you don’t have enough students.