CONGESTION OBLIGES SCHOOL TO EXTEND DAY SOONER.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Facing its largest freshman class ever, the most populous school in Santa Clarita will voluntarily start an extended-day schedule in August - one year before the change will be mandatory.

Extended-day schedules for high schools were to begin in summer 2002, but Valencia High chose a variation of the plan for the coming school year to ease crowding and help students become accustomed to the concept.

School will begin a half-hour later than it does this year, there will be classes during periods 1 through 8 (the school has chosen to eliminate the zero-period designation) and there will be two brunch sessions to cut down on lines.

Since students have to take six classes each day, the new extended days would allow them more flexibility in determining their schedules. With the new schedule, a student theoretically could start classes as 9 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m., or start at 8 a.m. and finish at 3 p.m.

``We want to get students used to the idea of starting at different times, and we want to work out the kinks before we have to do it,'' Principal Paul Priesz said.

In March, the board of William S. Hart Union High School District approved an extended-day schedule beginning in 2002 with 11 periods, under which students would start as early as 7 a.m. and finish as late as 6:20 p.m.

With more than 800 students in next year's freshman class, and a total school population of about 2,950, the altered schedule would also help alleviate the pressures of overcrowding. In just one year, the school population will grow by more than 200 students.

``It would make more room for the school's growth,'' said Mike Allmandinger, administrator of student services for the Hart district.

In fact, according to Allmandinger, other high schools in the district have also implemented the longer school days before the mandatory date, because they also felt the need to ease crowding.

The district has nearly 16,000 students, but projections based on current elementary school enrollment and the thousands of new homes planned in the Santa Clarita Valley have the district facing a student increase of about 9,000 by 2007, according to consultants hired by the district. Campuses could be up to 60 percent beyond capacity by 2003.

The board decided that extended-day formats, as opposed to adopting a year-round multitrack calendar, serve best as stopgaps while new schools in the district are completed. The next high school in the Hart district is slated to open in 2004.

Another reason for the schedule change is that district-provided transportation will cease next year, and the new schedule would allow more flexibility in time for students to get to school.