ENROLLMENT DIP EXPECTED THROUGH 2008 DISTRICT MAY LOSE MORE STAFF.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE- Glendale schools are expecting to lose about 2,000 students through 2008 - the first significant drop in enrollment in the district that largely has experienced student population increases since 1984.

The 29,366-student Glendale Unified School District would be down to 27,493 in the 2007-08 school year, according to projections, due to a drop of 420 to 527 students in each of the four years.

``While there's certainly a downside to enrollment decline, like loss of income that will impact programs, the upside is in subsequent years we'd like many of our schools to be smaller, which certainly would be a welcome change,'' said district spokesman Vic Pallos.

Given such declines, the district will likely lose staff and may start reviewing whether year-round schools - created to ease campus crowding - should continue, officials said. Jefferson Elementary, which switched to a multitrack, year-round calendar in 1991, will likely switch to a single- track year-round schedule starting in the fall, Pallos said.

``What we'll see happening in years ahead is that additional elementary year-round schools will have a choice of either going back to a traditional schedule or going on some kind of modified, year-round schedule like Jefferson decided to do,'' Pallos said. There are currently eight schools in Glendale that operate on multiple tracks.

District officials, prepared for the enrollment decline, were able to fold it into their budget projections for the coming years.

The revenue loss due to the decrease of 420 students in 2004-05 accounts for $2 million of the projected $8.1 million deficit during the year, said Steve Hodgson, chief business and financial officer for the district.

The district is already projecting the loss of as many as 42 probationary and temporary contract teachers next year - a number that will continue to grow and include nonteaching staff as the district enrollment declines.

District officials point to Glendale's competitive housing market as the most significant cause for the enrollment decline. Families - especially in the central and southern parts of the district - have left the city for less costly housing.

The last time the district experienced drops in student populations to this extent occurred in the 1970s, when the schools lost 4,000 students during the decade. The drop forced the closure of five schools in the early 1980s - a step district officials said they will not take this time.

The district's enrollment grew in the early 1990s, largely because of an influx of immigrants. The numbers plateaued in 1998 and 1999 when they hit a peak of 30,420 students, then began to slowly decline, officials said.

``Of course, enrollment is always cyclical, and we're still building multifamily units in the city,'' Hodgson said. ``At this point in time there's not a lot of students in those units, but that can, of course, change over time.''

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com