EAST VALLEY LAST ON SCHOOLS LIST.

Byline: Erik Nelson Staff Writer

A new blueprint presented Tuesday for Los Angeles Unified's massive school construction program puts the east San Fernando Valley at the bottom of the priority list among areas with severe crowding.

If the staff plan is accepted by the school board, it would delay construction of all but two high schools in the East Valley for years and force all schools in the area to go on a year-round calendar.

With low priority and limited total funding, money could run out before the Valley's classroom-crowding problems are addressed.

``We are in a crisis. There is no room for children to attend school anymore,'' said Valley school board member Julie Korenstein after hearing the priority list.

``The Valley has been basically shafted year after year after year. That is why the Valley wants to break away,'' she said. ``We really need to look at the possibility of another bond measure.''

New school construction projects should come first in the district's Belmont, Southeast and Central areas, officials said in the report, recommending fourth-lowest priority for the Valley, ahead of Hollywood.

The priorities were based on two factors: the amount of crowding at each school and the number of years schools have been on a year-round schedule.

``This is a triage process. There are huge needs in every area of the district,'' Chief Operating Officer Howard Miller said during the meeting.

Officials presented the board with two lists, one if there is $1.9 billion in construction funding and the other with $1.2 billion.

The $1.2 billion proposal, which assumes the district will not benefit from a civil rights lawsuit to compel the state to give $900 million more in Proposition 1-A bond money, calls for three high schools, one middle school and one elementary school for the Valley at an estimated cost of $53.5 million. That would include only two high schools for the East Valley area.

If less than $1.2 billion materializes, then all Valley schools might have to wait until other areas' needs were met, officials said.

Officials played down the significance of the list, however.

Miller said the lists are ``really just data for the board,'' which could set its own priorities.

The full board is scheduled to vote on a list at its June 13 meeting.

The $1.9 billion list calls for the construction of four high schools, two middle schools and three elementary schools in the Valley at an estimated cost of $69 million.

It would cost an estimated $9 billion to relieve all classroom crowding and return all schools to traditional calenders.

``Current funding sources, in the best possible scenarios, are insufficient to remedy this enormous shortage of seats,'' states the report by School Building Planning Director Kathi Littmann.

Officials said they looked at schools that had been neglected for the longest and had to endure year-round schedules.

For instance, Belmont High School will be an estimated 4,120 seats short in 2007 and has been on a year-round schedule for 19 years, putting it at the top of the priority list. School officials built a new high school for the area, but environmental problems prompted the school board not to get it finished and opened.

On the other hand, Monroe High School in North Hills will be an estimated 3,805 seats short and has been on a year-round calendar for four years, making it eighth on the priorities list. While Monroe is in the Valley, it is nonetheless being considered for overcrowding relief at the same time as other district schools because of its situation, Littmann said.

One possible remedy at Monroe might be to build new multistory academies or an entire new high school in place of one-story temporary classrooms or bungalows on the school's sprawling 36-acre campus, Littmann said.

North Hollywood High School, where students, parents and teachers protested against the July 1 conversion to a year-round calendar, is 15th on the list, with a projected shortfall of 1,555 seats in 2007.

The year-round schedule, known as the track system, alternates vacations for three students on three tracks, so only two-thirds of the student population is on campus at any one time.

With the $1.8 billion to $2 billion district officials hope to get - although $900 million of that is doubt - officials believe they can create room for 57,406 new seats. Of those, 28,130 will relieve 12 overcrowded high schools, 14,552 will relieve 17 overcrowded middle schools and 13,645 will relieve 26 overcrowded elementary schools. The plan also includes 9,566 seats to reduce class sizes, which would be financed by voter-initiated state bonds.

The report warns in bold type that even if all those plans are fulfilled, ``within the next four to five years, every high school in the district will have to go year-round multitrack and every high school will have to continue year-round multitrack.''

Littmann said, however, that Valley schools are likely to go year-round in three years to make room for an increasing student population.