By Eugene Chang

In a few weeks, thousands of school will begin Summer Vacation and millions of students will joyfully spend their two and a half months lolling about and hanging out with friends. Even the words "summer vacation" brings about memories of parties, lazing about, and days and nights spent with friends. Unfortunately, for my school, Van Nuys High, all those will remain mere dreams.

My school, which has officially adopted the Year Round Schedule Starting with the 2001-’02 year, was forced to go year round after the District Board realized that the current amount of classrooms and the number of teachers was insufficient to deal with the three thousand four hundred plus students.

We joined a growing number of schools which had been also forced to adopt the year round schedule. The list includes such schools like North Hollywood High and Sepulveda Middle school.

What year-round exactly does is to take the traditional school year, and spread the school days out evenly with longer vacations until the traditional schedule is stretched to cover the entire year. This schedule, then divides up the students into three or four groups. Van Nuys high, which chose three tracks, will always be schooling two groups while the third vacations. Thus, the number of students will remain constant in that one track will always be missing.

Those naive enough to jump for joy at this "new and improved" schedule are sadly mistaken, for they do not see that while the multi-tracking increases efficiency, it does not necessarily help the students whose AP classes are thrown off, or the student who plans to take summer college classes, or the student whose track mandates that he vacation while his college applications are due.

My personal gripe is that I get a measly one-week of summer vacation. That’s right, one whole week to forget everything that I learned in my junior year and to prepare for the last year of my high school. After that cherished week (during which I will cram as much fun and horseplay as possible), I must again wake up at 6 am to catch the bus at Third and Western with the other entire Math and Science Magnet Students on Track C.

So, while I could be attending college classes to catch up on my lagging GPA, or taking on a science project to increase my scientific horizons, or even go traveling abroad (who doesn’t like to travel), I will be spending my last high school summer with my head buried in books to keep my grades up in my 4 AP classes and 2 honor classes.

Of course, when my first vacation begins from the end of October, all the way to January, I can go and laugh at my fellow Medical Magnet friends.

But is Year Round scheduling really the solution for overcrowding? Many of my friends must now alter their summer college class schedules to take evening classes rather than daytime classes. I myself cannot attend several supplemental programs due to that fact that I only get a week between my Junior Year and my Senior year.

And what about my college applications? Due to my hectic schedule, I’ll be gone from the end of October all the way to January. Whether or not this will hurt my ability to get teacher recommendations and information from my school, I would feel much more comfortable with the old schedule just because of the fact that I had been adhering to it for so long.

I remember when North Hollywood went year round. They had the student body and the parents protesting it in such an fervent fashion that I’m kind of surprised that the district didn’t turn back their decision.

When the students at Van Nuys first heard about the school’s possible adoption of the new tracking system, many were skeptic that we would actually follow through with it. Of course, sometime between February and March when the decision was made, I can hardly remember any serious opposition. A student protest was organized but the outcome was feeble compared to North Hollywood’s. The parents’ effort was a bit more convincing and held more water than that of the student’s. But after looking at the amount of effort put in by North Hollywood, I doubted that the decision to go Year Round would be overturned.

The one thing that I have reason to celebrate about new schedule is that my year ends weeks before AP tests, thus giving my ample time to study. However, by this time, my college applications will be in and I will probably have found out where I am going. So, the smile fades from my face.

Maybe I’m just griping because I’m scared of such a dramatic twist from what I’ve grown accustomed to my whole life. Or maybe I’m just a little stressed out due to the fact that I have just one week for summer vacation. Well, whatever it is, there’s nothing I can do about it.


Eugene Chang is a junior at Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles.