Residents Organize Against School

For 18 years, Barbara and Roger Rossier have operated a school for about 200 emotionally and developmentally disabled students in a quiet central Garden Grove neighborhood.

Each morning, the students, ranging in age from 5 to 22, arrive in small yellow buses from public school districts in Orange and Los Angeles counties. All have learning disabilities. Some have related development and social problems. All have been sent to Rossier School for the special programs it offers.

Despite various complaints over the years about traffic and disruptions from students, the Rossiers have achieved a delicate balance in the well-manicured neighborhood.

But now, with increased enrollment and class-size reductions forcing the Garden Grove Unified School District to reclaim its old campus, Rossier School finds itself in the middle of an unexpected controversy. Its plans to move to another district-owned school in West Garden Grove by June 1 have ignited a bitter battle pitting residents against school officials.

The neighbors-to-be, citing concerns about traffic, unruly students and property values, have begun organizing to keep Rossier from moving to Garden Park School on Springdale Street and Stanford Avenue.

“We knew this would probably be a school for kids in the neighborhood, but not 22-year-old kids from L.A.,” said Laura Edwards, who lives about a block from the school. “We’re afraid for our kids to walk by the school. It just takes a second for someone to jump the fence and grab the kids.”

In recent weeks, the residents formed a citizens group, elected neighborhood representatives, circulated petitions, contacted attorneys and met with elected officials.

The residents said they are used to sharing their neighborhood with students, with two elementaries, one middle school and a high school in the area. But they never expected a campus for students who have potentially disruptive problems.

“We’re not saying that the school shouldn’t be,” said Bonnie Everitt, whose backyard borders the campus. “It just shouldn’t be here. It should be in an industrial area.”

Educators say the neighbors have nothing to fear.

“These kids aren’t violent and they’re not criminals,” said Lynn Hamtil, a trustee with the Garden Grove Unified School District. “They have special education handicaps and our primary goal is to mainstream them back into regular education.”

Hamtil said the Rossiers hold a valid lease through 2002 and should be allowed to move to Garden Park, currently sublet by a child care center and dance school.

Under federal law, local school districts are required to provide free and appropriate education to all students. Children unable to work in regular classrooms can be sent to private schools at a district’s expense. Garden Grove children make up about 10% of the students at Rossier and the district pays about $30,000 per student annually.

“We have been so taken aback by the lack of information [residents] have about special education,” Barbara Rossier said. “There is an extreme lack of tolerance. . . . They have people who live in their own community attend our school.”

Rossier said she runs an academically based school that uses the same textbooks and materials as public schools.

“We do have fights, but we don’t take children with involvement in drugs or gangs,” she said. “This isn’t a school for people who have been expelled. We do have impulsive kids and the school district is meeting the needs of special education students.”

City officials said that Rossier School has not gone without complaints over the years, but that it’s common to receive calls for police service from officials and neighbors of secondary schools citywide.

In the last 16 months, police responded 43 times to Rossier to handle a variety of calls from educators and neighbors, including complaints of trespassing and disturbing the peace.

In comparison, officers were called to neighboring Lake Continuation High School, with about 300 students, 33 times during the same period, according to the Garden Grove Police Department. Lake has a roving police officer assigned to campus; Rossier has no outside security.

Joe Starbird, a five-year West Garden Grove homeowner and one of the opposition organizers, said he hopes residents can work something out with the city, school district and Rossiers. Residents also have called for reviews of the school’s operating plan and traffic studies.

“Garden Park was a school for kindergarten through sixth grade,” Robert Servis, a West Garden Grove resident for 37 years, said during a recent City Council meeting. “There were no buses because all the kids walked.”

Deputy City Manager Cathy Standiford said the city attorney is gathering information about the school’s site plan. “Once we have that, we will have a better idea about land use and the authority we have available,” she said.

School district board members will consider the issue further when they meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Garden Grove High School’s Don Wash Auditorium.

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NEIGHBORHOODS / WEST GARDEN GROVE

Bounded by: Knott Avenue to the east, Santa Catalina Avenue to the north, Bartlett Street to the west and the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to the south.

Population: The entire West Garden Grove neighborhood has about 16,000 residents--about 10% of the city’s total population, according to 1990 census figures.

Hot topic: Neighbors are organizing against the scheduled June relocation of Rossier School to a district-owned campus in their neighborhood. The school includes about 185 learning-disabled students from Orange and Los Angeles counties. Neighbors cite traffic, crime and other concerns in their opposition.