Littlest School Faces Big Problem : Education: County’s only one-room schoolhouse grapples with overcrowding.

SANTA CATALINA ISLAND —  Barely two years after opening at a remote island location, the county’s only single-room schoolhouse is facing the same dilemma as many urban counterparts across the water--overcrowding.

The red modular structure, complete with a tower and brass bell, was built for kindergarten through sixth-grade pupils at Two Harbors, a community of about 200 residents on the rural western end of the island. Long Beach yachtsman Cliff Tucker, whose company constructed and donated the building, wanted to eliminate the daily hourlong bus ride to Avalon schools.

This year, however, the area’s four sixth-graders were sent to Avalon because of the growing enrollment, said Jon Meyer, principal of the Avalon and Two Harbors schools.

And the nine fourth- and fifth-graders most likely will have to attend school in Avalon next year if the current growth continues, he added.

By 1992, he said, all but those in kindergarten through second grade will be bused away. After sixth grade, Meyer said, all Two Harbors students attend Avalon through high school.

The current enrollment at Two Harbors is 17, which “just about fits the ability of the facility as it exists now,” parent Randy Bombard told members of the Long Beach Unified School District’s Board of Education during a special meeting Monday in Two Harbors. The Long Beach district has jurisdiction over the island schools.

Although the problem has so far been solved by sending older children to school in Avalon, Bombard said, “the preference of the parents,” he said, “is to keep (the children) here as long as they can.” He is vice president of the board of a private foundation that splits the school’s operating costs with the district.

“Every year there seem to be new families,” Bombard said. While the number of residents has not increased significantly, he said, a higher percentage of them--about 20% more in the last two years--have school-age children. Bombard attributes the increase to the presence of the one-room school which, he believes, has encouraged an influx of younger families to replace older residents who move away.

Adding to the potential for future growth, he said, is the possibility that USC may expand a marine research facility that it operates at the isthmus.

After listening to comments of Bombard and others, board members visited the one-room schoolhouse to talk with students and their teacher, Aileen Earl-Wood.

Later, the visitors boarded a cramped school bus for the dusty trip to Avalon, where they had lunch with members of the local City Council and then reconvened at Avalon School to field questions from parents concerned about the length of time it will take to replace a school gymnasium that had been torn down because of unhealthy asbestos levels.

Back at the one-room schoolhouse, students prepared for their annual Thanksgiving “friendship” feast scheduled the next day. While third-graders at one end of the room mixed peas, broccoli and cabbage in a huge pot, kindergartners across the room cut out pilgrim hats and a first-grader strung necklaces with macaroni and string.

In the midst of it all stood their teacher.

“We have about as many children as we need in here,” Earl-Wood said.

The board took no action on the Two Harbors issue.

“We have to look at the resources available,” board President Jenny Oropeza said in an interview later. “Given the fact that we don’t have the resources (for expansion) and the community’s willingness to bus their students, we’re meeting the need.”