SCHOOLS FIGHT OVER CALENDAR\Van Nuys magnets scramble for A track.

Byline: Kimberly Kindy Daily News Staff Writer

It took three years for Van Nuys High School's Leadership Council to agree to a switch to a year-round calendar, but another showdown between the regular campus and its magnet programs for the most favorable calendar tracks is looming.

The debate already has fractured the campus, the fifth public high school in the San Fernando Valley to agree to go year-round beginning July 1 as a way to make room for its first freshman class.

"It's starting to tear the fabric of our school apart," said Charlie Wilken, a teacher and co-chairman of the school's Leadership Council, which voted, 12-4, Tuesday to go year-round.

"Teachers who were once friends are now arguing," he said. "It's very painful. We were a pretty together campus, and now we are starting to fight over the crumbs of what's left of our school."

The struggle is not a new one in Los Angeles Unified School District.

Last month, North Hollywood High School surrendered its long fight against going year-round - and a heated battle between parents and staff of the highly gifted magnet and the home school erupted over the coveted A track - which closely resembles the traditional September-to-June calendar.

The issue at North Hollywood is unresolved.

"It's paralleling very closely to North Hollywood," said Board of Education member Julie Korenstein, referring to the situation at Van Nuys. "People have different opinions . . . and they become polarized."

At Van Nuys, parents of the home school and the school's three magnet programs were united for three years in their struggle to keep the high school from being forced to go year-round.

But with 600 incoming ninth-graders being added next school year to the campus as part of a districtwide reconfiguration - boosting the student population to an anticipated 3,600 - the council could find no alternative.

Now the council must vote Feb. 27 on how to divide the student population.

In addition to its regular-curriculum students, the high school has three magnet centers - which largely function as schools within the larger school - that include a performing arts magnet, a math-science magnet and a medical careers magnet.

The Leadership Council's vote to go year-round will be brought to the Board of Education for approval in two weeks, but the issue of how the students will be divided among the calendars is entirely left to the local school's discretion.

Michael Lewis, a magnet parent and Leadership Council member, said Friday he wants to keep the magnet schools together on the A track because the programs have become closely integrated.

About 90 percent of magnet students take classes in magnet programs in which they are not enrolled. Regular or home school students also take magnet courses, but the percentage is much lower, roughly 25 percent.

"From a pragmatic standpoint, most magnet parents believe they should be kept together," Lewis said. "There is unbelievable crossover in the magnet programs."

The high school has more than 3,000 students - 1,300 of whom are in the three magnet programs.

Lewis uses the same argument as the Van Nuys highly gifted magnet parents for why they believe their children should be on A track: Many of the children enroll in college academic summer programs that they will miss if they are given a different calendar.

But Wilken - a teacher in the regular school - said the Leadership Council must decide what's best for all students.

And since the magnet programs are considered to be an asset to the entire school, Wilken said there is a push to divide the magnets among the three calendars.

"Some are arguing we should divide up the assets equally," Wilken said. "That would mean putting a magnet on each track. There would be high-level academic courses on each track, and the magnet and regular school would be integrated. That would be the most fair."

Van Nuys parent and council member Rachel Dunne said she is uncertain how she will vote, but whatever the final decision is on the calendars, much work lies ahead to ensure that each track maintains academic excellence.

"We will preserve the programs as much as we can, and then we will develop programs to support what we weren't able to preserve," Dunn said. "One thing we agree on is that we must ensure that in the end we have a very strong program for all students."

But battle lines are being drawn.

Van Nuys High School students circulated fliers Friday announcing plans to wear black and stage a sit-out following their nutrition break one day this week. The plan urges students not to return to class after the bell in protest of the council's decision to go year-round.

Students are also being drawn into the battle over how to divide the student population.

"Some want to put all the magnets on one track together," said James Grosleib, a 10th-grade medical magnet student. "Some are saying that we are discriminating against the home school if we do that.

"And some home school teachers are saying the magnet schools are just visiting, and we shouldn't have too much power."

North Hollywood Leadership Council member Tony Maldenado said he's not surprised by the conflict that has surfaced at Van Nuys - he's been there.

At North Hollywood, highly gifted magnet parents will attempt March 4 to overturn the school's decision placing their children on a calendar where they vacation in the winter and attend school in the summer.

"We expected Van Nuys to go through the same thing we did," Maldenado said.

"We tried every possible tactic we could to avoid going year-round, but the district said no," he said. "Our back was to the wall, so we had to go year-round, and that was when the fighting started. People start protecting their turf. It's kind of sad that we are fighting one another like this."