Orange Unified Considering Year-Round School Schedules

All elementary and middle schools will be considered for year-round, multitrack schedules as Orange Unified School District administrators figure out in coming weeks how to cope with booming enrollment.

Parents and school officials who sit on the district’s housing committee are cautioning families that the process has a long way to go before specific schools change their traditional schedules. Consultants are still studying the demographics of the school attendance zones and have yet to figure out which schools will need to be open all year, officials said.

“Simply because a school is on the list does not mean it has to be included for implementation next year,” said Bill Flory, facilities and planning director for the district.

But a preliminary review suggests that some schools will have to change from traditional to year-round schedules, especially since the state will only give matching aid for new construction after the district has implemented the year-round, multitrack schedules.

The district’s desire to take advantage of the state’s offer of increased funding in exchange for reduced class sizes in some elementary grades also means that space is at a premium.

As an example of the need, Flory said that Fairhaven Elementary School will need 21 new classrooms to provide class sizes of 20 students per teacher for just kindergarten through second grades.