YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLS? OFFICIALS RECOMMENDED MULTI-TRACK CALENDAR FOR SECONDARY GRADES.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A year-round multi-track calendar could be implemented at junior high and high schools in the Santa Clarita Valley by July of 2002, officials said Saturday.

During a special board meeting Saturday, district officials recommended year-round school over some other options like double sessions and extended school.

``I would like to avoid a year-round schedule, but we need to look at where we are going to house these students,'' said Patricia Hanrion, board member. ``But year-round seems inevitable. Now it's just a matter of choosing the best schedule for our students.''

While Saturday's meeting updated the board on the district's position, further discussion and a possible decision on whether to proceed with year-round is scheduled for Wednesday.

``The probability is that we would go to a year-round system in the high school and the junior highs,'' said Steve Sturgeon, board member. ``Having kids off for three months at a time doesn't have a positive impact on educational improvement.''

Though a decision may be made, Hanrion said that more specifics of how the schedule would work would be worked out at a later time.

``We're looking to visit schools on year-round calendars before we determine how to implement it,'' she said. ``If we have to do this we must do this in the best way.''

Board members said that a boundary change is also expected.

The special board meeting Saturday was called as the financially strapped district grapples with solutions on how to house future students faced with continued growth and new facilities three years away.

Before the brief discussions of year-round schooling, board members were briefed on the status of new school construction projects desperately needed to reduce overcrowding.

The board was also told about state funding options.

Until now, district officials have tried to stay away from asking the state for hardship funding, but now officials have asked the board to consider asking the state to help build it's next four schools.

``The hardship funding doesn't represent a negative option as we thought it was,'' said Steve Sturgeon. ``We believed that when the state comes in they build what they want. But what we learned today is that they work on our plans and the community's needs.''

``It provides us with another opportunity that we believe didn't exist,'' Sturgeon added.