CLASSROOMS BECKON; LAUSD BEGINS NEW TERM.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby and Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

If Ivan Hernandez had his druthers, the summer he spent having fun at the movies and Magic Mountain would last a little longer. But because the eighth grade calls, he stopped at the hair salon Monday for a buzz cut.

``I'm not happy to go back to school,'' the 12-year-old student at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth admitted while waiting for a stylist to give him a long-on-top, short on the sides ``fade'' haircut that's popular with boys.

Students and parents prepared for the start of the new school year today at 473 campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Across the San Fernando Valley, stores that sell notebooks, backpacks, lunch boxes, water bottle holders, insulated nylon-and-Velcro lunch bags, school uniforms and other supplies rang up a brisk business typical for September.

The return to the classroom this year is marked by California's new English immersion approach to teaching immigrant students in the wake of Proposition 227 and a delay in installing air conditioning in dozens of LAUSD schools in the San Fernando Valley, where weather forecasts called for highs today in the mid- to upper 80s.

The annual back-to-school ritual at the shopping malls was also evident at barbershops and beauty salons, as youths sat for trims to complement their new clothes and study gear. ``Almost every other haircut is a kid,'' said Gloria Lopez, manager of the Supercuts in Canoga Park where Ivan was part of a weekend surge in business, she said.

At a Target store in Northridge, Nila Karimzai, 12, was happily picking out notebooks, pens and pencils for her return to Holmes Middle School in Northridge. ``I'm excited. I'm going to see all my friends,'' the seventh-grader said.

Zsa Zsa Ewing's daughter and three sons enthusiastically selected supplies for their classes at a Christian school in Reseda. ``I home-schooled them last year, so that's why they're excited to go back,'' the Van Nuys mother said.

This academic year, 11,200 more pupils in kindergarten through 12th grade are expected to enroll in LAUSD schools, for a record high total of 692,500 students.

A final enrollment tally will be available in mid-October.

To accommodate the growing numbers of students, the district has converted some traditional elementary schools to year-round calendars, reopened others and built new primary centers, minischools for kindergarten through second grade.

This year, five elementary schools switched to year-round calendars, including Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood, Burton in Panorama City and Parthenia Street in Sepulveda.

Haynes Street Elementary School in West Hills will reopen today after being closed for 16 years.

And with the $2.4 billion Proposition BB bond measure, passed by Los Angeles voters in April 1997, the district can now afford to look for sites to build new schools. Of that sum, $900 million has been allocated for new school construction districtwide.

``We're really trying to move forward to finding new sites for new schools,'' said Bruce Takeguma, assistant director of school management services for the district. ``That's going to be a big push for us, especially as we look for more land for primary centers. We've got our first one out of the gate, and we're looking to build more.''

In July, the district opened a primary center for about 240 kindergartners on the campus of Van Nuys High School. The kindergarten center recently moved to its own site near Van Nuys Elementary.

The sites were selected by a joint primary center task force headed by Superintendent Ruben Zacarias and Mayor Richard Riordan.

What's more, the district has a ``much greater percentage of classrooms'' in which there are 20 or fewer pupils assigned to each teacher, Takeguma said.

Portable classrooms that were on order during the 1997-98 school year have arrived and are ready for use, Takeguma said.

But the long-promised, much-needed cooling systems won't be in place at 48 schools, including Birmingham High School, when classes resume today. LAUSD officials have said that classes will be dismissed early on days when temperatures reach levels where learning is impaired.

Some schools might not have the air-conditioning units installed until January.

School uniforms were on the top of the Gonzalez family's shopping list at the Wal-Mart store in Panorama City. The Baptist school in Arleta that Karen Gonzalez, 9, and her 5-year-old brother, Danny, will attend specified which supplies and garments every student will need.

Mimi Gonzalez and her husband, Jesus, perused racks of school uniforms - tan and navy blue shorts, skirts and pants - for their kindergarten son and fourth-grade daughter, the latter of whom attended a West Los Angeles public school last year. ``We're not used to it,'' Mimi Gonzalez said, ``but I think it's a good thing.''

HEALTH REQUIREMENTS

LAUSD and county health department regulations require that incoming kindergartners and students new to the district present written proof that they have met health and immunization requirements before they can attend any classes. There is no grace period.

In general, student records must show inoculations against polio, mumps, rubeola and rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. In addition:

Children 2 months to 4-1/2 years old who are entering child care or preschool programs and kindergarten must now be immunized against hepatitis B.

Under a new requirement effective July 1, new students entering the seventh grade must show proof of hepatitis B immunization.

Children entering kindergarten will be required to have two doses of measles vaccine, at least one of which must be MMR or rubella, as opposed to only one required in past years.

Prekindergartners must be immunized against haemophilus influenza type B.

Kindergartners and first-graders who did not attend kindergarten in the district must have written results of a Mantoux tuberculosis test done within the past year. Children coming from out-of-state schools must show proof of a TB test.

Immunizations are available for free or at very low cost at several public health facilities, which the school can recommend to families.

Parents with immunization questions are encouraged to call the nurse at the campus their child will attend or School Nursing Services at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, chart

PHOTO (1 -- color) Carlos Barajas, 12, is clipped for school.

(2 -- color) Zsa Zsa Ewing shops for back-to-school supplies with her children.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News

Chart: Health requirements (see text)