Some Schools Already Have Opened

While the Labor Day weekend will give many people another excuse to relax by the barbecue, for most parents it signals the final days to scramble for back-to-school necessities as most schools open their doors to students next week.

In a handful of year-round schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, however, classes for the fall semester began Thursday. For most other students in the district, the school year begins in early September.

All of the district’s more than 400 LEARN schools will start the fall semester after Sept. 4. Schools on the traditional September-to-June calendar will begin classes after Sept. 10.

For most elementary schools, the coming school year adds a little twist, represented by a new state initiative to reduce the size of first- and second-grade classes to 20 students by February. For the past month, many elementary school administrators have been busily interviewing teachers and searching for extra classroom space to accommodate the new configuration.

“It’s a little extra work for us, there’s no doubt about that, but I expect this will be a real positive thing for the students,” said Jilanne P. Fager, principal of Coldwater Canyon Avenue elementary school.

More than half of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s 112 public elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley will have a 20-1 student-teacher ratio in each of their classes by the start of the school year. Sylmar and Valerio Street elementary schools, both year-round schools, began their fall semesters Thursday with reduced first- and second-grade classes.