Waiting list for Sowers numbers 36

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Thirty six Huntington Beach City School District

fifth-graders are on a waiting list to attend Sowers Middle School, while

another 36 seventh- and eighth-graders from outside the district have

been accepted.

“This is unfair,” said parent Denise Kaprielian, who lives within the

district boundaries. “My child should have first choice.”

Until now, the district has been able to accommodate students -- within

and outside district boundaries -- who want to attend Sowers. This year,

however, the waiting list has grown but the space at Sowers hasn’t.

Kaprielian’s daughter is a fifth-grader at Moffett Elementary School. Her

daughters have been attending Moffett since kindergarten. However, the

family’s neighborhood school is Peterson Elementary, which feeds into

Dwyer Middle School.

Although Kaprielian hasn’t had any problems obtaining intradistrict

transfers to Moffett, she’s listed as No. 32 on the waiting list for

Sowers.

Kaprielian isn’t alone.

A group of parents, mostly from the Landmark tract between Adams and

Yorktown avenues and Newland and Magnolia streets, have applied for

intradistrict transfers to Sowers. Like Kaprielian, their neighborhood

schools are Moffett and Dwyer. But these parents want their children to

attend Sowers because they don’t want the youngsters to be separated from

their friends who will go on to Sowers.

“I don’t have anything against Dwyer. They’re both good schools,”

Kaprielian said. “I’m concerned about the continuity of the peer group

for my daughter. That’s where everyone [my daughter] knows is going.”

Jim Moseley, another parent whose child has been put on a waiting list,

is concerned that his shy daughter would have a tough time at Dwyer,

where she doesn’t know anybody.

“I want her to continue where she has gone, where I know her friends and

I know their parents,” he said. “My daughter is on her own [at Dwyer]. I

don’t know these kids, and I don’t want to throw the dice.”

Moseley has further concerns about his daughter having to cross Beach

Boulevard to get to school.

“There’s no crossing guard across this six-lane highway,” Moseley said.

Some parents are upset their children may be turned away in favor of

seventh- and eighth-graders from outside the district.

“This is my school, my district,” Moseley said. “I’m paying taxes, and I

don’t want to suffer.”The district has not yet responded to requests from

incoming sixth-graders outside the district. But acceptance letters for

students entering the seventh and eighth grades were sent out as part of

a routine annual procedure before district officials saw the large number

of requests from incoming sixth-graders.

“We didn’t anticipate a problem, but this year’s number is larger than

expected,” said John Conniff, the district’s director of administrative

services.

For now, the district is waiting for a final count of sixth-graders who

will attend Sowers in the fall. The school hasn’t reached capacity yet,

but the final count is not expected until Tuesday.

The district would like to fill any vacancies with district residents

first. But officials are seeking legal advice on how to handle seventh-

and eighth-graders who live outside the district but have been attending

its schools since kindergarten.

“They may have to return to their home district,” Conniff said. “We’re

exploring all situations. We’ll work with them.”

District officials hope to have more answers for parents at Tuesday’s

board meeting.