Getting a handle on intradistrict transfers

HUNTINGTON BEACH-- A year after calling for a new policy to resolve

the annual predicaments over intradistrict transfers, the Huntington

Beach City School District approved a change to its current policy last

week.

The new guidelines allow students on intradistrict transfers to

elementary schools to attend the middle school that elementary school

feeds into without going through the open enrollment process again.

This means that students who have intradistrict transfers to Eader,

Hawes or Moffett elementary schools will attend Sowers Middle School,

although they may actually reside within the Dwyer Middle School

attendance area. The same is true for students who have intradistrict

transfers to Huntington Seacliff, Perry or Smith schools. They will

attend Dwyer Middle School.

The change would affect only 13 children who are on open enrollment

transfers within the district at the present time. Other students who

don’t live in the attendance area of the middle school they wish to

attend will still have to go through the open enrollment process.

“I think it’s a positive move that shows the district is responding to

the community,” Trustee Shirley Carey said. “It certainly will resolve it

for this year and next, but we still have to look long term.”

The open enrollment process, which has upset some parents for about 10

years, became problematic when the schools began filling up. Some

residents, mostly from the Landmark tract between Adams and Yorktown

avenues and Newland and Magnolia streets, apply for intradistrict

transfers to Sowers each year.

Their neighborhood schools are Moffett Elementary School and Dwyer

Middle School. Some of the parents in the neighborhood don’t want to

separate their kids from friends who will attend Sowers next year.

Further, they have concerns about children having to cross Beach

Boulevard to get to Dwyer Middle School. Years ago, rumors sprang up that

the transfers out of Dwyer -- a more racially diverse school -- were

racially motivated. However, evidence was never produced, and talk of

racial issues has died down over the years.

Still, some parents were agitated when they learned their children’s

transfer could be turned down in favor of students outside the district.

According to state guidelines, intradistrict transfers are allowed to go

on to the feeder school without another transfer.

So far, district officials have been able to accommodate students each

year the problem has surfaced, including last year. But district

officials wanted to adopt a formal policy to solve the issue, making the

process more fair to their own students.

“I really feel we’re obligated to serve the folks that live within the

district first,” Carey said. “And we want to be supportive of children as

they approach middle school. That’s a time that is difficult for every

child.”

Trustees discussed options that included changing the boundaries of

specific geographic areas and giving students in certain areas the option

of enrolling into either middle school.

While district staff support the choice of attendance among its

district schools, they also want to make sure each site is efficiently

used without any imbalances of enrollment that could result in

overcrowding.

“There’s no way we can say you can all go where you want to go,”

Trustee Catherine McGough said. “But I don’t know any other way to be

fair.”

Officials will still limit the number of students who enroll at Sowers

to the capacity of the school, but may start doing so at the elementary

schools before it becomes a problem at the middle school level.

“If we accept a lot at K-5, then it could potentially crowd the middle

school,” McGough said. “It may require us to be very conservative and

thoughtful as we accept those K-5 intradistrict transfers. I’d rather err

on the side of being conservative.”

While some families in the district may be pleased with the new

policy, others are not.

“I don’t think they considered the full issue,” said parent Shereen

Walter.

Walter has two children at Peterson Elementary School. Students at

Peterson and Kettler Elementary School feed into both middle schools.

Walter would like her children to continue on at Sowers where most of the

Peterson children end up. However, the Walters reside within Dwyer’s

boundaries.

She worries that she will have a more difficult time requesting a

transfer to Sowers for her children because the other students already on

a transfer will be guaranteed a spot.

“I sympathize with the plight that the school board has. But I’ve made

family friendships and so have my children,” said Walters, who doesn’t

want her kids to continue on to Dwyer where they will not know anyone.

Celia Jaffe, another concerned parent, isn’t happy with the policy

either.

“I’m concerned that they’re forcing overcrowding at Sowers and that

the desires of a few are outweighing the good of the school at large,”

Jaffe said. “I think the previous policy driven by room in the school was

better for Sowers and fairer for all kids applying for transfers. Now the

policy is guaranteeing some [transfers] and refusing others.”

Enrollment numbers indicate that the middle schools should have their

highest enrollment over the next three years. It is likely that both

middle schools will have enrollment that strains their current student

capacity. However, those figures should decrease below the present

enrollment after those three years.

“After the middle school crunch, it’s going to get better. It will

help in the long range if we can get through the initial three years of

the enrollment bubble,” McGough said.

Enrollment projections for next year at Sowers show that there will be

room to accept this year’s open enrollment transfer requests.