School’s In, and It’s Seldom Out : Education: Anaheim City district begins it year-round schedule at six of its campuses. Some students are happy, but some parents aren’t.

ANAHEIM â€”  On Tuesday morning, about 5,000 Anaheim youngsters had to forget about sleeping late, kicking back in front of the TV and swimming at the local pool all day long.

For them, summer vacation ended all too soon. It was the first day ever of year-round classes in the Anaheim City School District.

But Felix Rodriguez, a fifth-grader at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, was wasting no time feeling sorry for himself.

“I’m going to learn my times tables,� Felix announced. “I want to do something--learn my times tables, go to class, do my homework. Otherwise? I’d stay home and watch TV And that’s boring.�

Surprisingly, many kids at Lincoln School agreed with Felix. They said forfeiting summer vacation was no big deal, and they liked the idea that instead, they would have four weeks off three times a year.

“The only thing I like about going here this summer is because it’s boring at home, because we live in apartments and there’s nothing to do there,� said Bunnie Hopper, a sixth-grader at Lincoln.

Year-round classes began Tuesday at Lincoln and five other schools in the district. The new schedule will allow up to 33% more students to attend the district’s schools, according to Elizabeth Schuck, program coordinator for the district.

The district chose six bilingual schools, in primarily Latino neighborhoods, to begin the program, which will eventually be established in all 21 district schools.

Officials said a continuous schedule this year would give the Spanish-speaking students an edge on retaining what they had learned, because the summer vacation tends to make all students a little rusty.

The district bolstered its attendance system with two new clerks and one new field officer to help recruit those students who didn’t realize they were supposed to be in school this summer, and those who are just plain truant.

Anaheim follows other Orange County school districts in starting year-round schedules to ease overcrowding. Some schools in Santa Ana Unified begin classes Thursday and others in Orange Unified, Irvine Unified and Capistrano Unified begin later this month.

As buses and parents deposited children at Lincoln early Tuesday, many made it just in time for the 8:15 bell that warned them to line up on the hot pavement and wait for their new teacher to escort them to air-conditioned classrooms.

For many, this was the moment of back-to-school truth: Crying kindergartners, scared to let go of their parents’ hands; reunited young friends, unable to quit chattering, and already-exhausted teachers bracing to start all over again.

“We’re ready,� said Neva Hoofnagle, a fourth-grade teacher at Lincoln, who added that teachers and other school employees had just one week to get ready for the onslaught of a new year.

But quite a few grumpy, groggy parents weren’t ready for the new year. Nor were they thrilled to wait in the long, late-registration lines, or try to find their child’s name on a long list of room schedules.

Initially, a number of parents in Anaheim were opposed to the plan, which they said would ruin summer vacations, and that opposition was again apparent Tuesday morning.

“They should’ve had a regular vacation,� said Linda Alarcon, who searched unsuccessfully for her two girls’ names on the room lists. “It’s going to be a little stressful at times, that’s for sure.�

And some children, too, at Lincoln admitted that they were a little bummed at having to get up and go to class when they knew everyone else was beginning the first of many weeks of summer bliss.

“Some of us have brothers who make fun of us because we have to get up early,� said Jessica Saldivar, 11, whose siblings attend junior and senior high schools in Anaheim which are not on year-round schedules.

But for others, like second-grader David Murphy, there was no stress at all. “It’s fun . . . and you get smarter.�