HUNTINGTON BEACH : Pupils Bring Diversity to Golden View

Minutes before the first bell rang Monday at Golden View School, a row of students anxiously waited outside. Near them, taped to a wall, a gold sign with red letters read: “Welcome to Golden View.”

Each of the students held a small sign with a single name: Myrna Nunez, Quynh Hoang, Ricardo Hernandez. . . .

The names were those of 42 students from overcrowded Oak View School, arriving by bus to begin classes at Golden View.

The transfer trimmed Oak View’s enrollment to about 640, which is still tops in the district. Golden View, on the other hand, has been plagued by sagging enrollment and was among three sites the school board in June considered closing as a budget-cutting measure.

Not only do the additional students boost Golden View’s enrollment but they bring a cultural diversity to a school that last year included 85% Anglo students. Nearly all of the transferring students are Latino or Vietnamese.

The row of waiting students were designated “buddies” to the new arrivals, charged with greeting the students whose names their signs bore and showing them around Golden View.

With administrators gathered around and a few parents snapping pictures, the new fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders filed out of the bus, located the signs with their names, and were escorted to class by their appointed buddies.

“The kids were a bit anxious about coming over, which is both positive and negative,” said Dwight Bletscher, an Oak View teacher who accompanied the 29 boys and 12 girls to help guide them through the first day. “Most of these kids have been at Oak View for quite a few years . . . so this is quite an emotional day for them. But the kids are pretty excited, too. They’ve heard a lot of good things about Golden View.”

Several of the new students said they originally were apprehensive about leaving behind their friends, favorite teachers and familiar surroundings. But having received such a warm welcome, by mid-morning they said they were already beginning to feel comfortable as Golden View students.

“I was kind of scared at first, but they’re really nice here. I like it,” said Quynh Nguyen, a newly arrived sixth-grader. “. . . (And) I’ll learn new things being at a new school, so I can learn more here.”

Unlike the compartmentalized rooms the new arrivals had been used to at Oak View, here they found found contiguous, partitioned areas joined together into a vast single room. And students at Golden View frequently gather round their teachers for lessons, rather than working the entire day at their desks or tables.

The new transfers bolster attendance at Golden View to about 385, Principal Michael Merz said. But that figure is still about 40 less than the county average.

But across town at Oak View, Bletscher said, as the departing students were loading onto the bus, six new students were being admitted at the office. “And we expect they’ll keep coming,” he said. “There are still a lot of kids we know who are back visiting with family at their (former) villages in Mexico, and they’ll all be returning.”

Merz said that when the question of school closures comes up again, as is scheduled late next spring, he hopes the new arrivals will keep his school open.

“I think this proves we can work with kids of all different backgrounds,” he said, “and it proves we can work near our capacity,” despite criticism that the school-without-walls can only operate effectively with an unusually low number of students.