Parents Seek School District Switch

A group of parents whose children attend school in the Rowland Unified School District say they want district lines redrawn so their children can attend Walnut Valley Unified schools.

The parents have collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition calling for the change, which would affect about 1,800 students at Nogales High, Rincon Junior High and Oswalt Elementary School.

Their request will be heard this fall by the Los Angeles Committee for School Board Reorganization, which must approve such changes.

But the parents face several obstacles.

Walnut district Supt. David L. Brown says that although the school board hasn’t taken an official position, the switch poses a problem because Walnut’s middle and high schools already are crowded.

“We would have real difficulty in housing those middle school and high school youngsters,” Brown said. “The upside would be that more youngsters mean higher revenue limits, and we can always use the extra money.”

Meanwhile, a Rowland school board member has alleged that racial issues are behind the request, saying that the proposal “makes my blood boil.”

“I am very much against it, and I question the real reasons why they want to move out,” said board member Rolland Boceta, an American of Filipino descent. “If Nogales High School wasn’t 45% Hispanic, I don’t think we’d have these problems.”

Susan Kelley, a spokeswoman for the petitioning parents, denies that her group’s request is motivated by racial concerns and says the issue is one of community identity.

“Our children . . . are separated from their natural neighborhood peers,” Kelley wrote in the petition. “Important aspects of their development such as after-school day-care services, youth sports programs, recreation programs . . . are coordinated through the Walnut Valley Unified School District.

Kelley’s proposal echoes a request in the western San Gabriel Valley, in which some Sierra Madre parents petitioned to withdraw from the Pasadena Unified School District and join more upscale Arcadia.

That request was turned down by the Los Angeles Committee for School Board Reorganization but will be heard by the California Board of Education in June.

Those who oppose such transfers say they often serve to further segregate school districts, as well as to give parents who live in more upscale areas a way to escape districts where violence is on the rise and test scores on the wane.

But those who initiate the redistricting say they only want what’s best for their children, and that often means attending school in the community where they live.

Walnut Unified, with 12,235 students, serves parts of West Covina, Diamond Bar and Walnut. Its student body is 46.4% white, 24.3% Asian, 18% Latino, 4.9% black and 6.4% other.

Rowland Unified has 19,000 students and serves all of Rowland Heights and portions of La Puente, West Covina and Walnut. Its student body is 46.1% Latino, 24.3% white, 12.1% Asian, 9.5% Filipino, 7.4% black and 0.6% other.