A Test for a Stellar School

The decision by Los Angeles Unified School District officials to put North Hollywood High School, ranked one of the top 30 campuses in the nation, on a year-round calendar left parents and students understandably angry and disappointed. Despite pleas, protests and proposed alternatives, interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines decreed that such a schedule is the only way to accommodate the needs of the fast-growing east San Fernando Valley, at least in the short term. We--and many parents and students--disagree, believing that such a short-term solution could do long-term harm to this district treasure.

Now what?

The disruption to advanced placement classes and summer enrichment programs, not to mention extracurricular activities such as sports and music, could well cause parents to pull their kids out, furthering the middle class’ abandonment of public education in Los Angeles. We hope that will not be the case.

Cortines did endorse Principal John Hyland’s plan for creating off-site learning academies and expanding the school’s renowned highly gifted magnet program. Although we would have preferred that these innovative alternatives be fast-tracked and the school kept on a traditional calendar, they are worth pursuing no matter what schedule the school is on.

Hyland told The Times that he approached the plan with the goal not only of increasing enrollment capacity but of improving student achievement.

His model was a school in New York City that was divided into schools within a school, with teams of teachers responsible for a certain number of students. Although the New York school enrolled 5,000, the schools within the school gave students and teachers a sense of connection and community.

North Hollywood High, which when year-round, will be able to accommodate about 4,500 students, already has several specialized “academies” that prepare students for transportation careers, for instance, or to be bilingual teachers. Hyland would like to expand these academies, or schools within a school, both on and off campus. His ideas range from a social justice academy to one that builds on the school’s proximity to the entertainment industry.

Hyland sees such innovations as not only increasing the number of students North Hollywood could enroll but engaging hard-to-reach students in new ways. Even in a school with North Hollywood’s reputation, he points out, not every student achieves his or her potential.

Not that a multitrack, year-round schedule will increase student achievement; Hyland accepts such a schedule reluctantly and, he hopes, only temporarily. But, he said, “sometimes you need upheaval to get everyone’s attention.” And if the upheaval focuses the public’s attention on ways to increase student achievement, Hyland believes some good has to come of that.

It would be a shame if parents--whose involvement has helped make North Hollywood the success that it is today--gave up on the school and pulled their kids out before seeing what Hyland can accomplish.