Local News in Brief : Official to Rule Where Burbank Student Lives

A Burbank Unified School District official on Thursday said he would decide by Tuesday whether the son of a Burbank Board of Education candidate lives within the city and is eligible to attend junior high school there.

Timothy Crowner, district director of child welfare and attendance, said he would evaluate new evidence on the boy’s residency that was given to him during a Burbank Superior Court hearing by David Romley, the attorney for candidate S. Michael Stavropoulos.

Romley said the evidence, which includes affidavits from witnesses and documents from utility companies, should prove that Stavropoulos, a neurosurgeon, and his son have lived in a house in the 600 block of East Walnut Avenue since September.

The school board concluded Oct. 5 that Stavropoulos did not live within district boundaries and could not send his 14-year-old son to John Muir Junior High School. Stavropoulos subsequently filed a lawsuit.

Crowner and Romley agreed that if the new evidence convinces Crowner that Stavropoulos lives in the district, the boy would automatically be admitted to Muir and the lawsuit would be dropped.

Superior Court Judge Thomas C. Murphy said he wants to know by Jan. 13 whether Stavropoulos’ son had been officially admitted into school or a new school board hearing had been scheduled.

The teen-ager is attending classes at Muir under court order pending the conflict’s outcome.