Schools Propose Enrollment Task Force

Glendale school officials have proposed forming a task force to investigate the continued rapid growth in the district’s student population.

In a report to the Board of Education Tuesday, Assistant Supt. David Kanthak, who is expected to head the task force, suggested seeking “acceptable alternatives” to deal with projected enrollment increases.

Among the alternatives to be studied are a year-round class schedule, enrollment caps and enhanced programs.

Since December, 1986, enrollment has increased from 19,779 to 22,641, or 14.5%, according to a district report. A city housing report released last month predicted that 2,696 students will enter the already crowded system in the next five years, an increase of 11.9%. District Supt. Robert Sanchis proposed the Futures’ Task Force at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting. The board is expected to formally adopt the proposal next month.

“In schools where existing alternatives--such as consolidation and construction--have all been exhausted and there is continued enrollment, then yes, year-round is a strong possibility,” Sanchis said Wednesday.

‘Wide Support’

He added that “there appears to be wide support for year-round at the state level” and that financial incentives have been offered to schools that participate in such programs.

Task force members will be selected after the program is formally approved, Kanthak said. The board is scheduled to consider the task force at its first meeting in July, and the group is expected to begin operating Sept. 19.

The district has consolidated programs and classrooms, created temporary classrooms, built new facilities and changed student attendance boundaries to deal with crowding. “Just about anything more than what we’re doing now would have to be considered drastic,” Kanthak said.

The school board voted in February to shift ninth-grade classes from two junior high schools to Hoover High School by September, 1991. The district will spend $4 million to build additional classrooms, but the switch will significantly ease crowding at the two junior high schools.

District spokesman Vic Pallos said district administrators have shown more interest in changing current procedures--the Hoover shift is an example--than in going to a year-round schedule.

“That would be an option that the committee would want to look into,” Pallos said.

The task force, to be made up of parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders, will list possible alternatives, their advantages and disadvantages and projected costs. The task force is scheduled to submit its findings to the board in February.