EASTSIDE JUGGLES SCHEDULE CLASSES TO START A WEEK LATER UNDER NEW PLAN.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Eastside Union School District students next school year will start classes a week later and have a shorter Christmas break under a new traditional-type school schedule.

The change will more closely align Eastside vacations with those of Antelope Valley Union High School District and might help improve attendance, Eastside officials.

``We were losing average daily attendance because a lot of parents weren't back from vacation. A lot of parents kept kids out of school until the high school started,'' Superintendent Greg Riccio said.

The board at last Wednesday's meeting approved moving from a single- track year-round schedule to a modified traditional calendar for the 2005-06 school year.

Some details still have to be worked out such as whether the spring break will be two weeks or three weeks.

Under the current school year schedule, classes began Aug. 9 and will end June 24. The Christmas break ran for more than five weeks from just before Thanksgiving until after the New Year.

The 2005-06 school year will start Aug. 15, and depending on how long spring break is, will end either June 9 or June 15, officials said. Christmas break will be three weeks from Dec. 19 through Jan. 6.

Eastside plans to offer summer school for students who are falling behind. ``It will ultimately impact in a positive manner student achievement,'' Riccio said.

Antelope Valley Union High School District schools traditionally started after Labor Day but in 2005-06 will start classes on Aug. 22 and end on June 9. In 2006 classes will begin on Aug. 14 and end the following May 31, just after Memorial Day.

Eastside is the third district to change back to a traditional-type school calendar.

Lancaster School District is on a multiyear plan of returning all of its 17 schools to a traditional schedule from a multitrack year-round schedule.

Palmdale School District dropped the year-round school schedule in 2003-04 as part of $12 million in cuts to make up for state funding cutbacks.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com