6 Weeks and It’s Back to Class : Schools: Fillmore High students adapting to the short breaks. But many teachers still oppose the year-round format.

To prepare for his first day back at Fillmore High School on Thursday, Jose Tapia bought a three-pack of white T-shirts, size double-X large.

Then he ironed the T-shirts down the middle to make an all-important crease.

“I’ve got to look clean, man,” said Jose, 16, a junior this year. “The crease has to be just right.”

Jose was one of about 900 Fillmore High students who returned for the 1993-94 school year Thursday--a summer day when temperatures reached 85 degrees by noon. From nervous freshmen to upperclassmen with all the right moves--and the right clothes--Fillmore High students returned to a campus entering its fourth year on a year-round schedule. And although the modified calendar has generated much hand-wringing from teachers, coaches and some parents, students returning to campus Thursday after a six-week summer vacation seemed to be adapting well.

“I don’t like it that much, but that’s the way it has to be,” said Dixon Harding, 16, returning as a junior.

Rene Ariaga was a freshman when the Fillmore Unified School District switched all five of its schools to a year-round schedule in 1990. Rene said he felt cheated at first because friends in other school districts were still sleeping in, going to the beach and hanging out with buddies while he was back in a hot classroom.

Now a senior, Rene, 17, said he has adjusted to the schedule. He has even worked out an agreement with his employer at a Piru fishing boat rental company to work full time during his short summer breaks and part time during the school year.

“It’s OK, I guess,” Rene said. “I can live with it.”

But the year-round schedule continues to be controversial among many Fillmore High teachers and athletic coaches, Assistant Principal Joseph Pawlick said. Some feel it adversely affects the flow of the school year, he said.

“There’s always that issue here,” he said.

Fillmore is on 10-week quarters, separated by two-week breaks in the fall and spring and a three-week Christmas vacation. Some teachers contend the breaks are disruptive. And coaches say it is unfair to ask athletes to come to school to work out when other students are on break.

On Thursday, students were more concerned with checking out new classmates than whether they should be returning to school in midsummer.

“If we weren’t in school, we’d be out on the streets looking for girls,” said Jose, the lanky 6-footer whose creased white T-shirt hung nearly to his knees over dark baggy pants. “At school, they’re all right here.”

For Rosario Rangel, 16, this school year brings new privileges. As a senior, she can leave campus during lunch. She and another senior took advantage of the privilege and went to a nearby pool hall at lunch to buy burritos, nachos and an orange drink.

“It beats cafeteria food,” she said.

As any high school student knows, it is important to have the right look on campus, especially on the first day.

Thursday’s warm weather prompted Melissa Boboltz, 15, to don white shorts and a tank top for her first day as a junior.

“I don’t feel like I’m coming to regular school,” she said. “It feels like summer school because it’s so hot.”