Students get interdistrict transfers

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Parents and students let out a round of applause and

a sigh of relief Tuesday night after Huntington Beach City School

District officials said they would be able to accommodate everyone who

requested a transfer to Sowers Middle School.

After receiving the final enrollment count, the district will accept all

36 fifth-graders on the waiting list at Sowers, officials said at the

school board meeting.

“They really listened to us this time,” said parent Lori Moseley, whose

child was on the waiting list.

Like most of the parents on the list, Moseley didn’t want to separate her

child from friends who will attend Sowers next year. She was also

concerned that her daughter would have had to cross Beach Boulevard to

get to Dwyer Middle School.

“Both are good schools. It should be made clear that these transfers are

requested on the basis of neighborhood schools and staying with

classmates,” school board member Brian Garland said. “It makes sense for

students to go where they think they’ll do best.”

Residents, mostly from the Landmark tract between Adams and Yorktown

avenues and Newland and Magnolia streets, apply for transfers to Sowers

each year. Some parents were upset this year when they learned their

children could have been turned away in favor of seventh- and

eighth-graders from outside the district.

So far, the district said it has been able to accommodate students each

year the problem has arisen.

“I’m pleased that the immediate crisis is over, but I certainly don’t

want to go through this again next year, and the next year....” Garland

said.

John Conniff, the district’s director of administrative services,

recommended that the district come up with a permanent solution for next

year. The board supported his suggestion that residents within district

boundaries be given priority over other residents.

“I think there are some solutions here, we just have to apply ourselves,”

Garland said.

Garland suggested that residents in the Landmark tract be granted a free

zone, where they could choose which middle school their child would

attend without having to get a transfer.

The board said it will look into the matter for action later this year.

“They’ve got the ball rolling,” Moseley said. “It’s never gone this far.”