CROWDS FORCE VALLEY SCHOOLS TO START BUSING; 3 CAMPUSES LACK SPACE FOR ALL ENROLLED.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Starting next week, three San Fernando Valley schools will be forced to bus students for the first time because of record enrollment and a push to shrink class sizes in third grade.

Those Valley campuses are Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary in Sherman Oaks, Blythe Street School in Reseda and Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, officials said.

All plan to bus the overflow of students to other less crowded campuses.

``We've just had an explosion of children,'' said Ada Snethen, principal of Hazeltine Avenue School which began busing students about six weeks ago to Coldwater Canyon Avenue School in North Hollywood. ``We thought it would be 20 to 30 kids who would be bused. Now we're up to 80 kids.''

Already other Valley schools bus thousands of students, but this year at least 100 more will join them from the three schools.

Schools across the east and central Valley are juggling students because of a surge in enrollment and competition for space necessary to comply with Gov. Pete Wilson's class-size reduction program. That program limits classes to no more than 20 students in kindergarten through third grade.

While some classroom shifting is typical for this time of year, campus officials said larger-than-expected enrollment and the class-size reduction program is making it difficult to find enough space. It is a problem they found last year when teachers were forced to make classrooms out of auditoriums, libraries and even closets.

This year, nearly 650,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12 are expected to attend classes in the Los Angeles Unified School District - 11,300 more than last year. Official enrollment figures will be released in early October.

``There's just enormous growth,'' said Bruce Takeguma, assistant director in the district's school management services.

Causing the surge of new students is availability of affordable housing, improvement in the economy and recovery from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, district officials said.

To ease growing pains, the district has ordered 1,500 more portable structures for class-size reduction in kindergarten and third grade. Until the portables arrive, many teachers are doubling up in classrooms or using unconventional spaces as temporary classrooms.

At Dixie Canyon, 12 fourth- and fifth-graders are preparing to catch the bus Monday to Chandler Elementary in Van Nuys. Parents of the bused students took the news hard, Principal Melanie Deutsch said.

``It's a very emotional time, some are upset,'' said Deutsch, who followed district policy of busing the last students to enroll at the school. ``It's breaking our hearts as much as it's breaking theirs.''

At Blythe, about 50 students will be bused to Cantara Street School in Reseda starting Monday. And at Reed Middle School, which is capped at 1,983 students, about 20 students will soon be bused to Mount Gleason Middle School in Sunland.

At Dixie Canyon, teachers are considering using their faculty lounge as a classroom or team-teaching 40 children until two new portables are ready for use.

Frustrated by students' inability to use campuses resources, other Valley schools have decided not to use libraries or auditoriums as classroom space.

``It's not right,'' said Hubbard Street School Principal Nancy Oda, who recently reopened the library after using it as a classroom for two years. ``It's very important to have the library open for students.''

Teachers at Hazeltine also are refusing to use their library, auditorium and parent center as temporary classrooms. Instead they agreed to team-teach until three new portables arrive, Snethen said.

``We're excited,'' she said. ``Once we have those rooms we'll have enough room for class-size reduction in third and kindergarten.''