Year-Round Schools

I regret The Times chose to reduce a complex issue to an attack of “poor management” in your recent editorial about year-round schools (“School District Still Hasn’t Got It Right,” Jan 14). The Board of Education approved a so-called “reconfiguration” plan to move to kindergarten-to-fifth-grade elementary schools, sixth- to eighth-grade middle schools, and ninth- to 12th-grade high schools because it makes good sense educationally. It was not proposed to reduce overcrowding, although many elementary schools did benefit by gaining classrooms where sixth-graders used to be. In the East Valley, as a result, approximately 1,550 students will be able to attend their neighborhood school instead of being bused to another school.

Because college admissions are based on student performance from grades nine through 12, it makes sense to provide this continuity under one roof. School counselors can better ensure students receive all the courses they need. Further, a sixth- to eighth-grade middle school provides a more appropriate transition from elementary school to high school.

The addition of ninth-grade students has indeed required some high schools to move to a multitrack year-round schedule. This issue has been discussed at great length in recent years. In parts of the East Valley, reconfiguration was postponed to allow further consideration of options to serve the additional ninth-grade students moving on to high school campuses and to provide air-conditioning.

The need for a year-round calendar is not a surprise to any of the affected schools and in many places is recognized as a necessary consequence of the nine-to-12 high school format and current student demographic trends.

The real issue is the need for new schools to serve the increasing student population. Bond measures have either not been on the ballot at all or have failed in the past three years. Presently, there is no money left at the state level for school construction. The only real remedy for overcrowding, multitrack year-round schools and getting children off the buses is to build new schools.

MARK SLAVKIN

Slavkin is president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education