Year-Round Schedule

While I agree with the overall tone of your editorial (“Ultimately, Students Pay the Price,” Aug. 4), you have some specifics incorrect.

The School Leadership Council of North Hollywood High School did not fight the Los Angeles Unified School District’s plan to convert North Hollywood to a year-round schedule. We, or should I say most of us, had accepted the inevitable problem associated with adding more than 800 students to our campus, had signed off on a memorandum of understanding to go multitrack, and the school Leadership Council had completed the track placement of magnet and special programs. However, a handful of parents from the Highly Gifted Magnet, unhappy with the track placement of their program, protested vehemently to the board and downtown administrators, who responded to a small group of empowered parents. The decision to remain on a traditional schedule was not made by the school’s local council nor did we have any input into the decision.

As a result of returning to a single-track schedule, local students will have to be bused, at least 30% of our teachers will have to travel to different classrooms during the day, few if any teachers will have their own classroom during their conference period to do their work, our school day has been extended 15 minutes, and we will have to deal with the associated problems of dealing with 3,200 students crammed on a campus originally designed for 2,100.

JAMES H. BURR

Tujunga

Burr is chair of the North Hollywood High School chapter of United Teachers of Los Angeles.