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.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.