The on-again, off-again plan to convert the Los Angeles public schools to a year-round schedule has been temporarily shelved by the school system’s superintendent, who says he will work to overcome public misconceptions about the proposal.
A detailed plan for changing the school calendar was withdrawn from consideration last week shortly before a scheduled vote by the board of education that would most likely have led to its defeat.
The superintendent, Leonard M. Britton, has argued that a year-round calendar is needed to ease current and projected overcrowding by ensuring maximum use of existing facilities.
Parents and school-board members from the mostly white, middle-class areas to the west and north of the city have vehemently opposed the calendar change. They charge that it would consign students to overheated classrooms in the summer and accelerate departures from the school system among students from affluent families.
The proposal that was shelved would have replaced the five calendars currently operating in the district with one that would have retained the same number of instructional days for students, while allowing them short breaks spread throughout the year. It had been approved by the board in October, but immediately became the target of an organized opposition that succeeded in having it withdrawn for further study.--W.S.
