3rd Shift in 2 Months : Revised School Boundaries to Divide Valencia Students

Nine days before the start of classes, Newhall School District officials Monday announced a realignment of school boundaries that will send children from one housing development to two different elementary schools.

District officials redrew the boundaries--for the third time in two months--after a frustrated Newhall Board of Education last week ordered them to prevent crowding in the new Valencia Valley Elementary School, scheduled to open when classes begin Sept. 6.

“This is the third and last boundary plan this year, I promise,” J. Michael McGrath, the district superintendent, said Monday.

Under the new plan, about 66 pupils living in the Summit, a new development roughly bordered by the Golden State Freeway on the west, Valencia Boulevard on the north and McBean Parkway on the east and south, will be bused 15 minutes away to Old Orchard Elementary School in central Newhall.

Another 79 pupils from the Summit will attend the new $5.3-million Valencia Valley Elementary School, the district’s sixth school.

“It’s just heartbreaking for the kids to have their friends who live a house away and attend the same church go to another school,” said Penny Hansen, vice president of the Summit Homeowners Assn. “But it’s important for us to get behind the school district and take a positive attitude about this.”

The district’s latest plan divides the Summit into two parts by a diagonal line from the northeast corner of the development to the southwest. Pupils on the east side of the line will attend Valencia Valley; those on the west side will go to Old Orchard.

A letter explaining the boundaries and the busing schedule is available at the district office and at both elementary schools, district officials said.

In May, the board approved a plan that would have sent all the children from the development to Valencia Valley. Last year, all the Summit children attended Old Orchard.

In July, district trustees said new enrollment projections showed that half the children from the development had to be bused to Old Orchard to avoid crowding at Valencia Valley. Outraged Summit parents, saying they want the area’s children to attend the same school, persuaded the board Aug. 8 to restore the May boundaries and to limit Valencia’s Valley’s enrollment to 800 students.

The decision, in turn, outraged parents in four homeowner associations in housing tracts close to the school. The groups said it made little sense to crowd Valencia Valley while Old Orchard, about 130 students under capacity, has room to accept more children.

Under the new plan, Valencia Valley will have about 750 pupils, about 20 students under capacity. Old Orchard will have about 550 students, about 100 under capacity.