MOORPARK : Proposed School Panel Draws Protest

A Moorpark parents’ group that advocates neighborhood elementary schools protested Tuesday against the school superintendent’s nominations to a committee that will review the grade configuration at elementary schools.

The Moorpark Unified School District board was expected to decide Tuesday night whether to approve Supt. Thomas Duffy’s recommended appointments of 23 parents, community members and district employees to the newly formed Committee for Effective Schools.

The committee, scheduled to begin meeting this fall, will make recommendations to the board on whether the district should include kindergarten through fifth grades at all elementary schools, allowing younger students to attend the schools closest to their homes throughout their primary years.

The committee includes 13 parents whose children attend five elementary schools, which are scattered throughout four neighborhoods.

The panel also includes a teacher or principal from each elementary school and the middle school, two district administrators and two non-teaching employees. Four of the parents on the committee are members of Parents for Better Schools, the group that has led the campaign to reduce busing.

In addition, a majority of district employees on the committee has spoken at board meetings in favor of the district’s current busing program.

Helen Taylor, a founder of Parents for Better Schools, charged that Duffy had intentionally appointed a committee that would recommend keeping the program, which the superintendent supports. “I think it’s stacked, totally,” Taylor said.

Board member Clint Harper said before Tuesday’s meeting that he agreed with Taylor’s view of the committee. “There’s some excellent people on the committee,” Harper said. But the panel will lack credibility if the public perceives it as biased, he said.