HUNTINGTON BEACH : Racial Imbalance at School Studied

Faced with a disproportionately soaring Latino enrollment at one of its elementary schools, the Ocean View School District board is studying ways to end the school’s segregation.

Between December, 1987, and October, 1989, the Latino student population at Oak View School jumped from 47% to more than 70%, a racial anomaly in a district composed chiefly of Anglo students.

During an emergency meeting called Thursday to address the issue, school board members agreed to set up an advisory committee to suggest alternatives for desegregating the school. A staff attorney from the County Department of Education has been called in to guide district officials through the complicated legal maze of leveling Oak View’s unbalanced ethnic makeup.

The school, located in a predominantly Latino neighborhood northwest of Beach Boulevard and Slater Avenue, also includes 14% Asian and 14% Anglo students, according to 1989 figures. Two years earlier, Asian students composed 30% of Oak View’s enrollment and Anglos made up 22%.

The segregation issue arose during an advisory committee’s discussions about restructuring the schools in the district, which may include closing three schools and realigning boundaries of many others.

Options under study for ending the racial disparity include redrawing Oak View’s boundaries, changing its grades to something other than kindergarten through sixth, or closing the school and sending its students to neighboring schools, district officials said Thursday.

Board members said they hope to incorporate a desegregation clause into the districtwide restructuring plan that the committee is scheduled to present May 22.

Some efforts must be made toward resolving the dilemma before next year, when state officials are scheduled to review the ethnic balance at the district’s schools, Supt. Monte McMurray said.

The state Department of Education conducts demographic analyses for each district every four years. During its last review of Ocean View in December, 1987, it concluded that Oak View was “in danger of racial isolation” but agreed with the district’s assertion that the only solutions available were not economically feasible at the time, said Geraldine Jaffe, the county attorney studying the issue for the district.

The state also concluded, however, that the standard of education offered at Oak View was equal to that of the district’s other 16 schools.

If the district does nothing about Oak View’s ethnic imbalance by 1991, the state probably would recommend a specific course of action for the district to take, which could be imposed upon the district by a court order, Jaffe said.