Classes Meet Despite Suit Against Year-Round Plan : Education: Parents got a temporary restraining order, but a Court of Appeal said the schools could operate pending review.

School is in session--for the moment--in the troubled Lynwood Unified School District.

But no one--not administrators, teachers, parents or students--knows exactly how long schools will remain open this summer.

The life of the district’s fledgling year-round school program hinges on the result of a lawsuit filed by a group of parents who want the district to revert to a more traditional September-through-June academic calendar.

The group almost succeeded in shutting down Lynwood schools this week. Superior Court Judge Kenneth W. Gale had granted the parents a temporary restraining order that would have closed the schools beginning Monday and continuing until a July 23 hearing.

The district chose to disobey the order and opened for business as usual Monday. That afternoon, the 2nd District state Court of Appeal spared the district a possible contempt citation by staying the lower court’s temporary restraining order. The Court of Appeal ruled that schools could operate pending further review.

To have shut down not only would have disrupted the semester but also would have cost the district about $500,000 a week in state funding, which is based on student attendance, Supt. Audrey Clarke said. The district would also have remained responsible for paying an estimated $500,000 a week in salaries--school or no school.

Year-round schooling began for about 5,000 students July 1 at the district’s high school, the junior high school and three of the district’s nine elementary schools. The remaining campuses are tentatively scheduled to join the year-round program next July.

The district, which has about 15,500 students, adopted year-round schooling to relieve crowding caused by a 13% growth in enrollment during the last two years. Over the last decade enrollment has grown about 50%.

Parents Interested in Education, the group that filed suit to stop the classes, disputes the district’s contention that an immediate change to year-round education is necessary. The dissident parents hope to prevent year-round schooling by showing that the district failed to properly inform parents of the schedule change. The state Education Code requires school districts to publish three notices of their intent to go year-round before Nov. 1 of the year before the change. The district’s final notice got into print one week late, in the Lynwood Journal of Nov. 7, 1990.

The issue involves more than a technicality, parents’ attorney Lawrence Morse said. Late publication gave parents less time to air their concerns and less time to mount a petition drive against year-round schools. Parents also contend that the notice did not clearly state that the year-round schedule would be mandatory. In addition, the notice was published in English only, even though 77% of the district’s students are Latino.

“The parents feel that the district attempted an end run around them,” Morse said. “They feel they have the right to have input, and they have opposed the plan as set forth by the school district.”

The group, which says it has 500 members, raised money for legal fees through bake sales and garage sales. Beginning in April, the parents organized rallies and school attendance boycotts to protest the year-round plan. They finally filed suit this month.

Parents’ concerns include the lack of air-conditioning in many classrooms and a year-round format that puts students in school for four months and out for two. The format increases annual school vacation time by about a month. To compensate, the district has made the school day longer.

District officials said they expect their year-round calendar to survive the legal challenge. Although the published notice was late, the district sent home numerous bulletins to parents in English and Spanish, and also conducted bilingual meetings for parents at affected schools, Supt. Clarke said.

The district has compelling reasons to go year-round, she said. First, there is the overcrowding. Hosler Junior High School, built to hold 800, has accommodated as many as 2,100 students. Lynwood High, built for 1,800, has seen its enrollment balloon as high as 3,500, forcing the school to house students in portable classrooms.

Once fully implemented, the new schedule will reduce the number of students on campus at any given time by about one-third.

Going year-round also improves the district’s chances of getting money to erect new schools. Districts that use their classrooms all year rise on the waiting list for state money to build new schools. The competition for such money is intense because there is a $6-billion backlog of approved, but unfunded, school construction projects statewide.

A year-round schedule also increases the odds that a district will get state funding to install air-conditioning.

In all, the summer semester has run rather smoothly, and the less crowded campuses are a pleasant change, Lynwood High math teacher Hymie Rosette said.

Many students and parents have also adjusted.

“I like it,” said 12th-grader Myleena Pugh. “There were too many kids anyway.”

Parent Yolanda Zuniga said she believes a year-round schedule was inevitable. “Parents knew that we’d go to year-round sooner or later,” she said. “At the beginning I was kind of hesitant because everybody has a fear of the unknown, but when I saw there were fewer children in school, that was a good sign.”

Most Lynwood teachers support year-round schools, said math instructor Eugene Dean, who co-chairs the bargaining team for the Lynwood Teachers Assn.

“I personally believe that year-round is the only way for the district to go. It is bursting at the seams,” Dean said.

Dean added, however, that the district could have shown more foresight in getting the program going. “They made so many mistakes that when I speak about it, it sounds like I’m exaggerating,” he added.

Some students were not told that they would be on a summer schedule until the end of June, Dean said. Teachers, too, have not been clearly informed what their working schedules would be, he added. In addition, children in the same family are not always on the same track, making it impossible to plan family vacations.

Supt. Clarke said the district will try to resolve any family hardships caused by the schedule change.

The year-round dispute is happening against a turbulent backdrop of other problems. The teachers are at an impasse in contract negotiations over their pay for last year. Nor have negotiators made progress on a pact for next fall.

Teachers and parents have also blasted district officials for building a $5.5-million administration building before providing classroom air-conditioning. Administrators, who are just now unpacking in their new offices, say the building was necessary because the old district headquarters was too cramped. The district financed the building through the sale of bonds.

Other problems in the district have included complaints about cafeteria service, low test scores and gang problems. Last Friday, the district fired its attorney of 18 years for failing to prepare legal documents in time.

Board member Rachel Chavez believes that the parents’ suit results from overall frustration with the district. But she said the administration is improving, and that year-round schools represent a step in the right direction.

“There are larger issues,” Chavez said. “But I don’t feel we should mix apples and oranges right now. I admire the parents’ gumption, but instead of helping, they’re becoming part of the problem.”