CALENDAR TO CHANGE FOR SCHOOL LANCASTER CAMPUS TO START YEAR-ROUND SCHEDULING.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Of its two schools remaining on a traditional schedule, the Lancaster School District has decided to switch only one of them to a year-round calendar next year.

El Dorado School was deemed more ready to make the change this coming July, and officials say it is needed to help the district deal with growing enrollments in east Lancaster.

``They really are prepared. They almost went that route a couple of years ago,'' Superintendent Steve Gocke said. ``We need to absorb some of the growth around El Dorado School (located near Fifth Street East and Avenue J).''

Mariposa School, on the other hand, will stay on a traditional schedule for at least another year, Gocke said. The district wants to continue to use the school for its summer school program, Gocke said.

``They are at the edge where they can go another year,'' Gocke said. ``Right now, it can't be of any help in terms of absorbing growth anywhere else.''

The district had been considering converting both schools to year-round schedules next year because of growth in enrollment districtwide.

After one year on a modified year-round schedule, El Dorado and Mariposa schools switched back to a traditional nine-month calendar in 1998 because their enrollments had gone down.

At the time El Dorado School lost about 50 students because of changes in attendance boundaries, and Mariposa's growth was less than anticipated because a home builder delayed plans to construct 57 homes.

The district also had been considering changing attendance boundaries to help balance enrollment at Joshua and Linda Verde - two eastside campuses struggling with overcrowding.

Instead of boundary changes, the district is now looking at ways to get parents to move their children to those two schools on a voluntary rather than mandatory basis, officials said.

In addition, some families new to the district who move into the attendance areas of Linda Verde and Joshua will be asked to send their children to El Dorado, Gocke said.

``We're looking at voluntary choice there to help those two schools,'' Gocke said. ``Linda Verde, El Dorado and Joshua are each a half-mile apart. Their areas overlap.''

Informational letters will be sent out to parents in January, Gocke said.

Although each school was built to hold 700 kindergarten to fifth-grade students, Joshua School has 1,000 students, and Linda Verde School has about 900. The district hopes to get enrollment down to 850 at each campus.

The overcrowding has led to playgrounds filled with portable classrooms, not enough restrooms and parking, and lots of traffic, officials said.

Enrollment is surging at the district's 16 schools - up more than 500 students from last year to 14,520.

Six schools have more than 1,000 students, and four others are over the 950 mark, according to district records.

The boom is being attributed to development, people moving into available housing, multiple families living in one home, and older longtime residents selling their houses to families with children.

The district wants to build schools, one on the west side and one on the east side, but that will not be for another five years.

Amargosa Creek Middle School, at 27th Street West and Avenue J, is scheduled to open July 2001.