Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Students Settle In at New Campus : Education: District weighs abandoning Van Gogh site because of potential unstable soil. Reopening of two other campuses is delayed.

GRANADA HILLS — Students from Van Gogh Street Elementary School, the only Los Angeles Unified district campus that may have to be abandoned because of the Jan. 17 earthquake, settled in to new surroundings Tuesday, relocating to five portable classrooms and one empty wing of nearby Frost Middle School.

After a half-day orientation Monday, in which parents and students gathered for tours of Frost, about 350 Van Gogh students were eager to share experiences and settle in to a new routine, bending familiar programs to fit new spaces.

“I like being back,” said Haley Weiner, 6, giggling with another girl about the boys’ playground attempts to skip rope. “I get to see my friends even though it’s at a different place.”

District officials have not decided the fate of Van Gogh, where the buildings have been declared structurally sound but there is concern about unstable soil beneath them. Officials have said the site might have to be abandoned.

Meanwhile, at quake-hobbled El Camino Real and John F. Kennedy high schools, a long, unplanned vacation dragged on as an overly ambitious Tuesday deadline for restarting school came and went without much notice.

Officials had originally pledged that the two schools would open by March 7, but moved up the date after parents complained--and after the state promised to furnish all necessary bungalows by Tuesday.

But by late last week, principals and others who had sounded optimistic the week before said last-minute construction glitches, rain and other problems would delay the reopening.

No new date has been set, although both principals and district officials have said they anticipate resuming regular classes around Tuesday.

“We’re hoping against hope it will be the 22nd,” said Dan Isaacs, the district’s assistant superintendent for school operations. “We’re very optimistic.”

The only courses that have been held at the two high schools have been advanced placement and other optional classes, which continued to meet Tuesday. Students roamed around looking for teachers and trying to locate appropriate bungalows, a harbinger of the confusion that could ensue when all 5,000 students return to the two newly rearranged campuses.

“My AP Spanish teacher, she just said to show up,” said 17-year-old Irma Chavez, a Kennedy senior. “We have to go around looking for the class. The classes are open, and you just go in and ask the teacher where your class is.”

Some parents and students had not gotten word of the delay, said El Camino Principal Joyce Washington; scores of them called in to confirm the start time.

“They say, ‘Is it true, are we open?’ ” said Diana Ryan, an El Camino office assistant. “We’ve been getting a lot of phone calls like that. We had hoped to be open today, and that’s the last some people heard so they’re calling to check.”

At Frost, elementary classes doubled up to most efficiently use a smaller number of large classrooms; Principal Maureen Diekmann said 12 additional bungalows are expected to arrive within two weeks.

Missing materials, fewer restrooms, unpainted playgrounds, a lack of office phones and cold lunches were just a few of the complications, Diekmann said.

Teachers did their best to help students adjust.

In Janny Cho’s kindergarten bungalow, underneath brightly decorated bulletin boards and beside child-sized tables and chairs, a group of 5- and 6-year-olds gathered on the floor for “sharing” time.

Students wrote in one or two sentences their experiences during the quake and then drew illustrations for their stories. “When the earthquake happened, I was very scared,” said Ryan, 6, reading aloud to his classmates. “There was no light.”

The day before, when anxious Van Gogh students hesitated to leave their parents’ sides during a morning welcome-back assembly, Diekmann summed up the feelings of her staff.

“Welcome back to your old, new school,” she said while the children clapped and cheered. “We are Van Gogh School, and I don’t want anyone to forget that.