HUNTINGTON BEACH : Ocean View Schools Targeted for Closure

An advisory committee to the Ocean View School District board has targeted three schools for closure in an effort to whittle away at the district’s mounting budget shortfall, Supt. Monte McMurray said Tuesday.

The recommendation calls for Golden View, Haven View and Lake View schools to close next month when classes recess for the summer. The school board will consider the recommendation next month after three public hearings on the issue.

Under the plan, the enrollment boundaries of five other schools would be altered to accommodate students from the abandoned schools, busing would be expanded and Crest View School, currently a K-8 campus, would become a K-6 school.

In all, the change would mean more than 400 non-graduating students--almost 5% of the children currently attending the district’s 17 schools--will be moved to a new school next year.

The proposal culminates four months of debate by the district’s Master Planning Committee, a 40-member panel composed of administration officials, parents, teachers and other district employees. The school board formed the committee to study ways to save money by reorganizing the makeup of the district’s schools.

The district, whose enrollment leveled off this year after 14 consecutive years of decline, is facing a budget deficit estimated to be between $1.3 million and $1.8 million, McMurray said. Eliminating the three schools would shrink the shortfall by about $750,000, he said.

The K-6 schools singled out for closure were chosen chiefly because of their low enrollment, McMurray said. Haven View, with 340 students, Golden View, which has 350, and Lake View, with 395, are three of the district’s four smallest schools.

Sun View School has just 375 students, but the committee suggested Lake View be shut down instead. Nearby Crest View, by eliminating its seventh and eighth grades and changing its boundaries, could handle all of Lake View’s students, McMurray said.

Some students now attending Mesa View, Spring View, Village View and Westmont would also move to different schools this fall because of boundary realignments.

Parents will get a chance to voice opinions about the proposal at 7 p.m. Thursday, when a Master Planning Committee hearing is scheduled to discuss the plan.

Many parents of students whose schools would be closed said Tuesday they are upset about the prospect of transferring their children to different schools. Some parents interviewed said they believe opposing the closures would prove fruitless, but others are more hopeful. Groups of Golden View and Haven View parents are organizing to fight the effort.

“I think it stinks,” said John Trulin, a parent of a Haven View fifth-grader. “And I know a lot of people who are unhappy about this. One of the main reasons people live in this area is because there’s a school here.”