HUNTINGTON BEACH : Schools Overhaul Is on Trustees’ Docket

Faced with burgeoning racial segregation and the aftermath of years of declining enrollment, the Ocean View School District board tonight will consider enacting the district’s most sweeping plan ever to reorganize its schools.

Fifteen months in the works, the proposal would close two schools, revamp attendance boundaries, increase busing fivefold and introduce middle schools to the district. The board will vote on the proposal after a 7 p.m. public hearing at the Ocean View High School gymnasium.

If adopted, the plan--which would be implemented in September, 1992--will boost to 10 the number of schools Ocean View officials have closed in the last 15 years and make it the county’s last kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district to move to middle schools.

The proposal incorporates middle school reconfiguration with a desegregation plan approved by the Board of Trustees last month. The desegregation facet would close Crest View Elementary and restructure Oak View Elementary, both of which have lopsidedly ethnic minority student populations.

Four of the district’s K-8 schools--Marine View, Mesa View, Spring View and Vista View--would be converted into middle schools for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Haven View, which has the smallest student capacity among district schools, would be closed, along with Crest View. The remaining 11 schools would become elementary schools serving K-5 pupils.

A parent group, centered mainly at Marine View and Mesa View schools, has rallied against the plan. The parents denounce it as too costly and contend that the move to middle schools would divide neighborhoods and undermine strong academic programs.

District officials and other proponents say the plan is necessary to make better use of Ocean View’s teachers, staff and facilities in the wake of a steep enrollment decline. But Supt. Monte McMurray and other supporters acknowledge that the proposal would force about one-fourth of the district’s 8,600 students to change schools under new boundary alignments. The district, which buses 600 students daily--not including special education students--would be forced to bus 3,000 students each day under the plan.

The proposal would also require about 20 portable classrooms and six restrooms to be added to school sites to accommodate expanded student populations. District officials estimate that those buildings, plus 10 new buses the district would need, would cost $1.9 million to $2.5 million. McMurray said he expects the state to reimburse about $140,000 to the district in desegregation funds. The rest of the money would be withdrawn from the district’s special reserve account, which has a $7.1-million balance.

Hiring additional bus drivers, clerical workers and other employees would cost the district an estimated $503,000 per year, to be recouped by money saved from the two school closures, district officials said.

Although Ocean View made spending cuts last year to avoid the financial constraints now facing many Orange County districts, some parents fear their district eventually will be pinched further by the statewide funding crisis.

Critics also remain unconvinced that the reorganization will reap the educational benefits that officials promise. Many Marine View parents, for example, are hesitant to tinker with their school’s program, which has produced California Assessment Program scores among the top 15% statewide. They are also skeptical about district staff assumptions that Ocean View can afford additional programs within the projected budget.

“Why put us through this cataclysmic upheaval when the end result is unclear?” asked Ed Senesi, father of a Marine View kindergartner. “There are too many holes in this plan. The staff has failed to prove for us that middle schools are necessary, that we can afford it or that it’s beneficial.”