Students Oppose Year-Round School Plan

Devouring coleslaw, jalepeno chips, chocolate milk and Oreos, about 150 students protested peacefully Monday against a plan to convert North Hollywood High School to a multitrack, year-round schedule.

Although a few students chanted “No year-round” for the benefit of TV cameras, most just stood on the athletic field wearing yellow ribbons, eating their lunches and calmly explaining to administrators why going year-round would be inconvenient and damaging to their education.

“We won’t learn as much on a year-round schedule,” said Jessica Esparza, 15, a sophomore, referring to enrichment and remedial summer school programs. “We won’t have the same kind of opportunities we have now.”

Called “a gem” in the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District by several school officials, North Hollywood High ranks as one of the top 30 campuses in the nation. It houses the prestigious highly gifted and zoology magnet programs, produced the nation’s No. 1 Advanced Placement scholar for the past three years and, in February, won its third straight regional Science Bowl.

For months, students and their parents have argued that a year-round schedule would harm the magnet programs and overall student achievement.

Under the proposed year-round calendar for North Hollywood High School, students would be divided into three tracks. Two tracks would be in session at any given time. The plan would extend the school day by about 20 minutes while reducing the school year by 17 days.

Last week, more than 100 students stormed the main office building, decrying the year-round schedule. No one was injured, but in response to safety concerns voiced by Principal John Hyland, students this week agreed to be peaceful.

“We want the demonstration to be silent and orderly because we want to be heard,” said Brittany Wilson, 14, a freshman. “We want to be taken seriously, in an adult manner.”

Jennifer Kretchmer, 15, a sophomore in the highly gifted magnet, said a year-round school could jeopardize programs for students attending prestigious summer classes at universities across the country--or rob them of much-needed vacations with their families .

“We work hard all year,” she said, “and a lot of us go away for the summer.”

While Hyland praised the students’ maturity, he said the school most likely will go on a year-round schedule in July, the official start of the 2000-2001 school year.

“My hearts go out to the students,” Hyland said.

With 3,500 students and classrooms so jammed that one student complained of not having enough desk space, school officials say the campus must switch to accommodate a surging enrollment and prevent students from being bused to distant West Valley campuses, such as Taft and Reseda high schools.

North Hollywood buses 410 students to other high schools, while 123 more go voluntarily under the district’s open enrollment plan. According to a policy approved in 1998, district high schools that send more than 250 students to other campuses because of overcrowding must convert to year-round schedules.

Early this morning, parents plan to present an alternative proposal to Hyland and interim Supt. Ramon Cortines. The parents want to keep the school on the traditional calendar by constructing multistory classroom buildings and placing temporary bungalows on the faculty parking lot while providing off-site parking.

Their plan also entails expanding the school’s “academies,” or specialized education programs in subjects such as entertainment, hotel management, and health and human services. Like North Hollywood magnet students who study at the Los Angeles Zoo, academy students could learn at off-site locations, such as a film studio, hotel or hospital, the parents said.

Hyland said he favors erecting new buildings and expanding the academy programs. Under a plan he recently presented to Cortines, the school would go year-round, but it would return to a traditional calendar in two to three years after classrooms are built and off-site academies opened.

Hyland thinks North Hollywood High can serve as a model for other district high schools facing year-round calendars.

Cortines praised Hyland’s proposal and said he is also open to the parents’ plan. Hyland’s plan is “very realistic,” said Cortines, who expects to make a decision some time this week.