Simi Students’ Move to L.A. OKd
About 300 children living in a three-square-mile canyon at the eastern edge of Ventura County have won permission to attend classes in a Los Angeles County district starting next month.
Bell Canyon has been transferred from the Simi Valley Unified School District to the Las Virgenes Unified School District by the state Board of Education, Las Virgenes Supt. Albert D. Marley said Tuesday.
The annexation had been requested by canyon parents, who said some of their youngsters had 90-minute bus rides to classrooms in Simi Valley. The 370-home canyon is about a mile west of Canoga Park and is accessible by road only through Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles.
Marley said the switch will have little initial effect on his school system because about half of the canyon’s youngsters received individual permits to attend Las Virgenes classes last year.
He said the others were split between Simi Valley and Los Angeles Unified School District schools. They will be allowed to complete elementary, junior high or high school at their old schools if they desire, Marley said.
The transfer was supported by the Simi Valley district, which has spent $30,000 a year transporting Bell Canyon students. The switch was also endorsed by school officials of both Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
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