5th-Graders May Get to Choose School Transfers

Palos Verdes school board members tentatively approved a plan Monday to allow current fifth-graders at Mira Catalina and Rancho Vista elementary schools to transfer to the school of their choice next fall.

The plan would save the financially strapped district the cost of buying portable classrooms and would give the students a wider range of programs to choose from, according to district officials.

Mira Catalina and Rancho Vista are the only schools within the district where sixth-graders attend an elementary school. All other sixth-graders are enrolled in intermediate schools.

Under the plan, the 137 fifth-graders would be allowed to attend either Ridgecrest or Malaga Cove intermediate schools or Miraleste High School, where a sixth grade would be created.

Miraleste, which the school board has sought to close because of declining enrollment, presently serves grades seven through 12. However, district policy now allows any seventh- or eighth-grader to attend an intermediate school regardless of where they live.

The district’s other two high schools serve grades nine through 12.

Acting school Supt. Wayne Butterbaugh said the district plan can not be carried out until Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miram Vogel reviews it and determines whether it violates her earlier court decision.

In 1988, Vogel prohibited the district from closing Miraleste or transferring any east-side students to west-side schools until it completes an environmental impact report on school closures districtwide. The district is preparing the report and expects it to be complete by May.

If the judge agrees that the plan does not violate the court order, the board is expected to cast a final vote on the matter on March 19, district officials said.

Butterbaugh said that the district, which faces a $2.9-million deficit this fiscal year, would save $195,000 if the fifth-graders are allowed to attend other schools because it would not have to buy three new portable classrooms. The classrooms are needed to replace existing ones that do not meet state construction codes, he said.

Mira Catalina Principal Karen Jaconi said she favors allowing the fifth-graders to transfer to the other campuses because they would then have a counselor and a vice principal at their disposal.

Also, the school would regain part of its playground where the sixth-graders’ portable classrooms now sit, she said. Sixth-graders began attending the school three years ago when the district closed an intermediate school because of declining enrollment.

Barry Hildebrand, vice president of the east-side parents’ group that has waged a lengthy battle to keep Miraleste open, asserted that board members should not have vote on the plan until Vogel had a chance to review it.

Hildebrand, who unsuccessfully ran for a school board seat last fall, also said he feared that some fifth-grade students who elect to go to one of the district’s intermediate schools instead of Miraleste High School might not be required to transfer back to Miraleste once they reach the ninth grade.