Parents Blast Board’s Delay of Year-Round High Schools Vote

One day after the Los Angeles Board of Education agreed to delay a vote to convert four San Fernando Valley high schools to a year-round schedule, parents and teachers at those campuses blasted the board for accommodating a small group upset by the proposed change.

About two dozen parents and students from the North Hollywood High School highly gifted magnet program persuaded the board to postpone the vote, saying the year-round system would hurt the specialized program by preventing participation in summer enrichment programs.

But parents, teachers and administrators resigned to the change said on Tuesday the board should consider first the needs of the majority of its students, not just its brightest.

“It’s an elitist attitude,” said Tony Maldonado, president of the North Hollywood High School bilingual advisory council, which voted to put the magnet students on the disputed schedule. “We’re concerned about 3,000 students, and not just 10% of them. We’re talking about a public institution for the benefit of all.”

The schools--Monroe, North Hollywood, John H. Francis Polytechnic and San Fernando--have little choice but to switch to a year-round system to ease overcrowding caused by the addition of a freshman class in the coming school year.

But the magnet parents complain that a North Hollywood school panel placed the students on a schedule that will keep them in class during the summer months, a time when those students typically enroll in summer courses at Harvard, Yale, Oxford and other prestigious universities.

“Do you think we are willing to sit back?” said Christine Valada, who has a son in the highly gifted magnet. “I’m sorry if people think it’s elitist, but I’m not going to apologize” for trying to protect the students’ education.

Teachers and administrators at the other four schools say the two-week delay is creating unnecessary anxiety.

“That was an individual problem at North Hollywood,” said Joan Elam, principal at Monroe. “Hold them up. Don’t hold us up.”

Said Pat Flenner, the magnet coordinator at Polytechnic High: “I’m really disappointed with the board. The reality is we’re overcrowded . . . we have to go year-round, that’s a given.”

Board President Mark Slavkin agrees. Slavkin, who voted against delaying the vote, predicts the board ultimately will vote to convert the schools to the year-round calendar.

“It does create anxiety in the other school communities . . . and I don’t think it was necessary,” Slavkin said. “But last night was a demonstration that if a local school mobilizes around an issue, the board will try to listen to their concerns and address them.”

Still, parents and teachers at North Hollywood defend the panel’s decision to place the 244 magnet students on a schedule that begins its fall semester on July 1.

“We made that decision with all 2,700 students in mind,” said Jim Burr, the teacher’s union representative at North Hollywood High.

The North Hollywood highly gifted program, which is open to students with an IQ of 145 or above, is the only one of its kind in the district. Crenshaw High, which is on a traditional, September-June schedule, has a combined highly gifted, gifted and high-ability magnet center.

Crenshaw Principal Yvonne Noble said the parents should be more concerned with how students’ schedules coincide with the spring Advanced Placement exams rather than exotic summer programs. Students passing AP tests generally receive college credits.

The current plan for the North Hollywood magnet students enables them to complete AP courses and exams.

“It’s a change and maybe they’re just not ready for it,” Noble said.