Short of Goal : Voluntary Desegregation Plan Proceeds

The Pleasant Valley Board of Education is moving ahead with a voluntary desegregation plan at its only predominantly Latino school even though white enrollment levels are far short of the district’s goal.

Board members hoped to attract 100 white students to El Rancho Elementary School, which is 67% Latino, by offering a curriculum emphasizing basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. But by the close of registration Thursday, only 50 white students had enrolled.

Instead of scrapping the program, the board voted 4 to 0 Thursday, with board member Ted Lambert absent, to proceed in hopes of attracting students after school begins in September. The board also extended the registration period four weeks, to May 20.

‘We Still Believe in This’

“Once the program is under way and people can see it working, we hope it catches on,” said Erich Anders, assistant superintendent for instruction. “We still believe in this. It is just going to take some time for it to work.”

The curriculum at El Rancho will be similar to that at Los Primeros Elementary School, which has proved popular with white parents, district officials said. At that campus, which is 70% white and 9% Latino, there is a 200-student waiting list.

“There has been a certain amount of reluctance on the part of white parents to send their children to El Rancho,” its principal, Fred Phipps, said.

Parents’ Concerns

“Some have concerns about the bilingual program. In terms of the new program, they have many questions such as who’s going to be the new principal and how will the school’s curriculum differ from a traditional school,” Phipps said.

To answer some of those questions, the district held a meeting two weeks ago for parents interested in the basics program. Phipps said about 50 people attended, 21 of them parents from outside the El Rancho attendance area.

The next day, registration forms for the El Rancho program were sent home with every school child.

Pleasant Valley has been searching for a way to increase white enrollment at El Rancho since 1984, when a review committee for the state Department of Education recommended desegregation.

Mandatory Reassignment

In addition to the voluntary plan, the board has discussed mandatory reassignment of some El Rancho students to three other schools.

El Rancho has the largest concentration of minority students in the Pleasant Valley system, which is made up of 13 schools serving 5,600 youngsters in Camarillo and neighboring areas.

Minorities, chiefly Latinos, make up about 22% of the district’s students. After the review committee recommendation, the school board established a policy that any campus with a minority enrollment greater than 47% would be considered segregated. Only El Rancho fell into that category.