Pupils’ 4 Months Off Irk Parents, Teachers

An unusual calendar switch intended to improve academics at one of the worst-performing schools in Los Angeles instead has provoked protests because it could keep several hundred students out of school for four straight months this year.

Parents of students at Mount Vernon Middle School in the Mid-City area are scrambling to find alternatives to television and video games to fill all those no-class days.

And some teachers worry that the extra time off will undermine efforts to raise test scores and leave too many students languishing over the long break.

Mount Vernon is changing from a year-round calendar with three staggered tracks to a single traditional schedule that runs from September to June.

It is the only campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District returning this year to a traditional calendar while other crowded campus are being forced in the opposite direction, to year-round schedules.

The change will add 17 days of school at Mount Vernon and is welcomed by some teachers as an important tool to improve the school, one of 10 in the district slated for a series of reforms because of poor scores on standardized tests.

But the new calendar is creating headaches on campus and in homes. About 600 “C-track” students, who started their school year last July and ended it April 30, will not return to class until after Labor Day. That includes some incoming sixth-graders who attended year-round elementary schools on the C track.

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer said the four-month gap for C-track students is an unavoidable side effect of moving Mount Vernon to a stable calendar that will be more conducive to learning.

“We all know there is a long-term good,” he said. “To get there we have a short-term problem.”

Some teachers disagree, calling the switch counterproductive. They already are angry about other policy changes at the school, including a dress code for teachers.

“It’s obvious the school district really hasn’t thought about our kids,” said Allen Riedel, a sixth-grade English teacher and a teachers union representative.

Officials stress that summer school classes are available elsewhere. But many parents say those classes are too far away from the neighborhood and that busing is not provided.

“I’m worried about my daughter,” said Hortencia Lazaro, 37, who hopes that 12-year-old Daisy will be able to attend a summer class. “She might forget what she learned in school and become lazy.”

With no other activities certain, Daisy plans to read “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”--given to her by a concerned teacher--over the summer and volunteer at her old elementary school. But September is far away.

“I’m going to be bored around the house,” said Daisy, who will be a seventh-grader in the fall. “There’s not much to do. Just chores.”

Mount Vernon Principal Scott Schmerelson said many students could actually wind up spending extra time in school if they take advantage of the so-called intersession and summer school.

About 100 C-track students are making up failing grades during intersession classes at the campus, he said. Those classes end next month. Students also can sign up for six weeks of summer school between July and August at other campuses.

“Most kids like summer school,” Schmerelson said. “They will actively wish to go with their friends. I think they will welcome it.”

Other students in the Los Angeles district have experienced a four-month gap. That happens when C-track youngsters graduate in April and move on to a middle- or high school with a traditional calendar that starts in September.

One-third of the district’s 660 campuses operate on year-round schedules and several more are making the change to it soon. Most of these 224 schools separate students into three staggered tracks, with two groups of students in session at a time and the third group on vacation. District officials hope to switch some of the year-round schools back to the traditional calendar as new schools open their doors in the next few years.

Some Mount Vernon teachers are receptive to the change, which will extend the school year by nearly a month and make it easier to coordinate training on campus.

The calendar change is just one of many reforms being introduced at the campus near Crenshaw and Pico boulevards as part of a shakeup of 10 district schools. L.A. Unified has reassigned administrators and beefed up training in response to state audits that found poor instruction and low expectations in those schools.

Mount Vernon teachers must attend 20 additional days of training in the coming year. Triggering union protests, employees also must abide by a new dress code that prohibits jeans and tennis shoes as well as sign “commitment forms” that require punctuality and collegial relationships.

Some teachers complain that the district did not adequately inform them--or parents--about the impact of the calendar change.

“I just had to apologize to parents,” said Doug Brouillard, an eighth-grade English teacher at Mount Vernon. “I didn’t know what to offer them except a reading list.”

Mount Vernon administrators said they have addressed the issue at staff gatherings and held a meeting for parents in March to spell things out. The school also sent letters home this week informing parents of the summer school option, with a list of campuses from which to choose.

“We didn’t forget them,” Larry Tash, who oversees middle schools for the local subdistrict, said of parents.

Joseph Murphy, a parent and a classroom aide at the school, has collected old history and algebra books and computer programs for his 12-year-old daughter, Kelly. He plans to keep her home studying rather than send her to summer school on city buses that he doesn’t think are safe.

He worries about the impact of the long break on other students.

“Any teacher will tell you that they have to spend a month of remedial work to catch the kids up from being on vacation for two months,” Murphy said. “What impact will four months have?”