Oxnard District Redraws Boundaries of Schools to Save Money

Most of the 17 elementary schools in the Oxnard School District will have new boundaries next school year, changing where more than one in four of its students go to school.

District officials will hold the first in a series of 11 school meetings tonight to explain the boundary shifts and answer parents’ questions about where their children will be assigned next year.

The plan effectively ends 20 years of cross-town busing mandated by federal court order to integrate Latino and white schools. The new boundaries will allow more students to attend neighborhood schools. The changes are scheduled to go into effect in August, at the beginning of the year-round district’s school year.

The Oxnard school board decided to make the boundary changes and close one elementary school to trim about $1 million from the district’s beleaguered budget, Supt. Norman R. Brekke said. District officials project a $2.75-million deficit next year.

The school board has directed district officials to implement the boundary changes, and there will be no public hearings on the subject, Brekke said.

The purpose of the meetings “is to explain the rationale for the board’s decision,” Brekke said. “The district is facing a financial crisis which cannot be overcome in the absence of doing what has been proposed.”

To offset the projected shortfall, the district also sent notices last month of possible layoffs to 63 employees, including teachers and administrators. Final layoff notices will be sent May 15.

District officials estimate that the boundary changes and closing one school will cut about $1 million from next year’s budget, including $450,000 in busing costs and the remainder in decreased operating costs.

About 3,500 students in the 12,200-student district would go to different schools, said Assistant Supt. Ardyce Driskill.

In addition to saving money, district officials said the plan will bring other changes:

* It will effectively end a 20-year-old busing program that under court order shuffles students between predominantly white schools and Latino schools to achieve racial balance. Since the 1971 federal court decision, the number of white students in the district has decreased by more than half. The court order lapsed in 1987.

* The reduction in cross-town busing will allow more children to walk to schools near their homes.

* Ramona Elementary School, 52 years old and in poor condition, would be closed at the end of this school year. Its 668 students would be transferred to other district schools until a replacement school is completed. That new school, Ritchen Elementary, is scheduled to open in August, 1992.

* Juanita, Curren and Sierra Linda elementary schools, which are either kindergarten-through-third-grade or fourth-through-sixth-grade, will return to a kindergarten-through-sixth-grade structure.

Some parents said they are unhappy with the plan.

Martha Rodriguez, PTA president at Ramona Elementary School, said she will have to drive her two daughters about three miles across town to Driffill Elementary, although they live directly across from Ramona Elementary.

“I think it’s going to be disruptive to the families, to the teachers--no one knows where they’re going,” said Rodriguez, a lifelong resident of the area who attended Ramona Elementary herself. She said children who attend Ramona and live in La Colonia will be most heavily affected.

“I don’t see why they can’t wait until the new school is built before they start moving these kids all over,” Rodriguez said.

But district officials said it is crucial to begin cutting costs as soon as possible.

They said the plan would ease overcrowding next year at McAuliffe Elementary School, which, though opened in 1988, is already filled beyond capacity, Driskill said. Built for up to 1,200 students, the school enrolled 1,228 students this year.

“There are more students being produced in that attendance area than we can physically house at the school,” Driskill said.

Brekke said another reason that the district is moving to the neighborhood school concept is because its Latino population, now 73.2%, is increasing at the rate of about 1% a year. About 17.8% of Oxnard’s students are white and the remaining 9% are Asian-Americans, blacks or members of other minority groups, he said.

Because of the increasing predominance of Latino students in the district, “there’s no way the district can achieve an optimal mix of racial groups” throughout its schools, Brekke said.

The district’s last boundary change was when McAuliffe Elementary opened, Assistant Supt. Bernard Korenstein said.

“The district has historically, because of growth in population, had a need to adjust boundaries on a regular basis,” Korenstein said. The district’s population has been growing by about 350 students a year, he said.

As other new schools open and their boundaries are carved out, more adjustments will be necessary, Korenstein said. In addition to Ritchen Elementary, another new school, Robert J. Frank Intermediate, is scheduled to open in the fall of 1993.

District officials will distribute maps of the new boundaries at the series of school meetings scheduled tonight through May 14. Parents with questions may call the district office or their child’s school. Both can be reached at 487-3918.

OXNARD SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETINGS

Meetings to discuss Oxnard Elementary School District boundary changes. All meetings start at 7 p.m.

Today: Juanita School (for Ramona School students)

Tuesday: McAuliffe School

Wednesday: Juanita School

April 11: Sierra Linda School

April 17: Curren School

May 1: Rose Avenue School

May 2: Driffill School

May 6: Elm Street School (for Elm and Harrington students)

May 9: Kamala School (for Kamala and McKinna students)

May 13: Marina West School

May 14: Harrington School (for Harrington and Elm students)

Source: Oxnard Elementary School District