SANTA ANA : 3 Schools to Start Year-Round Classes

Three schools will go to a year-round schedule in the Santa Ana Unified School District beginning July 1 to ease overcrowding.

The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to switch Jose Sepulveda Elementary School and Carr and Spurgeon intermediate schools to year-round classes.

The board split 3 to 2 in favor of keeping Remington Elementary School on a traditional schedule. Trustees Robert W. Balen, Rosemarie Avila and Richard C. Hernandez supported the motion, and Audrey Yamagata-Noji and Sal Mendoza opposed it.

The change to year-round classes will help reduce peak demand for school resources. During a presentation to the board, administrators reported that all the schools except Remington now exceed the numbers of students for which they were built and that enrollment growth will worsen crowding over the next several years.

Sepulveda, which was designed for 650 students, now has 772 students. That number is expected to climb to 865 by the 1995-96 school year.

Carr, which was designed to hold 1,530 students, now has 1,670 students, according to a report presented to the board. Although the switch to year-round schooling will boost its capacity to 1,836 students, by the 1996-97 school year, 2,319 children are expected to attend classes at that campus.

Spurgeon surpassed its capacity of 1,350 students by 45 this year. The switch to year-round classes will increase its capacity to 1,620. Enrollment estimates show that by the 1996-97 school year, more than 1,780 students will attend the school.

Despite an earlier surge, Remington enrollment has dropped from about 700 to 500. Administrators said the drop was attributed to residences being eliminated as a result of the Santa Ana Freeway widening project and expansion of the Orange County Register on Grand Avenue. Parents of Remington students supported maintaining the traditional schedule.

Mendoza said he favored a year-round schedule at Remington because the shorter vacations would help limited-English-speaking students improve language retention. Yamagata-Noji said she wanted more information from school officials and parents on the subject before making a decision. The two were voted down on a motion to delay the decision.