Plan to Close 2 More Schools Stirs Unrest in Fountain Valley

Parental unrest about the declining number of schools has surfaced again in Fountain Valley. The school district is proposing the closure of two more schools next fall.

Three decades ago, Fountain Valley Elementary School District could scarcely keep up with the new families moving in.

The housing boom was on, and young couples with babies swarmed into the pleasant community conveniently bisected by the San Diego Freeway. As housing tracts evolved, the school district frantically built new schools to accommodate the children.

The boom peaked in 1973, with 12,700 students and 19 schools. By that year, the housing tracts were full in Fountain Valley and northeastern Huntington Beach, both of which are served by the Fountain Valley School District. Fewer new families arrived, and school enrollment decreased each year thereafter.

Began Closing Schools

Instead of building new schools, the Fountain Valley School District began closing them. Each closure brought protests from parents, angry and hurt to see the end of a neighborhood school. In 1983, parental discontent sparked a recall election against the school board. The recall failed, but some residents remained unhappy that schools were closing.

By this school year, the Fountain Valley School District was down to about 6,100 students at 13 schools--less than half the enrollment of the boom years.

Tonight at a public hearing, the school district will proposing shutting down two more elementary schools--Arevalos at 19692 Lexington Lane in northeastern Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley at 17911 Bushard St. in south-central Fountain Valley.

Ironically, the Fountain Valley district borders the Garden Grove Unified School District, where a spurt in enrollment has necessitated the reopening of a school next fall. The parents affected in Garden Grove are unhappy about the increased enrollment because it may require some neighborhood school boundary changes.

Garden Grove’s boomlet stems from immigration growth in the eastern part of the district, which is a portion of the city of Santa Ana. But a few miles away in Fountain Valley, school district statistics show a graying community, where families have already raised their children.

Some Fountain Valley parents claim, however, that new families are moving in and that the school district just has not counted the new arrivals correctly. Protesters say they will fight the proposed closures at the public hearing at 7 tonight at school district headquarters, 17210 Oak St., Fountain Valley.

“We don’t think the school district has correct figures on how many children live in the area,” said Cherie Dwhytie, a protesting parent. “Just in my own neighborhood, I’ve counted many children who are in Fountain Valley (Elementary) School.”

Renee McCormick, another parent who lives in the Fountain Valley schools attendance area, said that a mistake by the school board on the projected enrollment next year will be bad news for all schools--not just the ones targeted for closure.

“If they make a mistake, the remaining schools will all be overcrowded,” McCormick said. “What happens then? Do we have our children moved to schools even farther away?”

Added another parent, Teri Abrams: “We know the figures are not accurate. They’ve predicted in the past that we’d have fewer students in school this year than we actually do have. They’re using their projections to justify closing schools, and their own projections have been wrong in the past.”

But school officials have responded by saying that they would like nothing better than to have solid evidence that enrollment is going up, or just staying even. The district officials have said that unfortunately their statistics project yet another decline in elementary enrollment of about 150 students next September in Fountain Valley and northeastern Huntington Beach.

“We certainly don’t want to close any school,” said Cheryl Norton, a spokeswoman for the district. “The year-by-year projections for student enrollment have been amazingly accurate, and the projection is for another decline next year. Then we’ll level out in the 1989-90 school year and have very small growth--very small, such as one student per class per year--in the next few years after that.”

Every child in school means money to the district. Schools receive their funding from the state on a formula of average daily attendance. The fewer the students, the less the funding. A decline in enrollment translates to a budget cut, sometimes necessitating staff layoffs.

“We’re hoping not to have any layoffs this year,” school board president pro tem Mary Lou Crossett said in an interview Monday. But she said that closure of one, possibly two, schools will be necessary to keep the budget balanced without layoffs.

Crossett said the school district believes that the projected head count for next year is accurate. “We think they’re as correct as anyone can get them,” she said.

District Can’t Wait

The district cannot afford to wait until September to confirm its projection, she said. By state law, teachers not given layoff notices before March 15 must be retained for at least one more year. If the schools are not closed, layoffs may have to be considered, and the notices must go out to preserve that option.

Thus, Crossett said, a school district must be as accurate as possible in projecting enrollments. She noted that a class size averages about 30 students and that a teacher must be hired for each class.

“For every 30 students we are short, we will have an extra teacher on the payroll,” she said.

Crossett said that tonight the school district will receive comments from the parents at the public hearing.

A vote on school closures is not expected until the school board’s meeting on Feb. 18, Norton said.

County Department of Education officials noted Monday that Fountain Valley is not alone in the problem of declining enrollments and school closures. All adjacent school districts, except Santa Ana Unified, have shut down one or more schools in recent years as enrollment dropped. Even Garden Grove Unified, which intends to reopen one school, is showing an overall declining enrollment.

Fred Koch, an assistant superintendent of the county Department of Education, noted that pockets of student-enrollment growth show up in various parts of Orange County.

“Santa Ana Unified, of course, is growing,” he noted. “Placentia Unified is growing. There’s that growth in part of Garden Grove Unified. But the big growth is in south Orange County--in Irvine Unified, Capistrano Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified.”

Those districts, Koch pointed out, are still benefiting from open land and new housing developments that young families can afford.