Far-Reaching Plan for Schools to Be Unveiled : Education: The proposal calls for realigning boundaries in the Ventura Unified School District and letting students go to school together from kindergarten through 12th grade.

A plan that could change school boundaries across Ventura and affect which schools students attend is scheduled to be unveiled today at a meeting of the Ventura Unified School District.

The plan calls for realigning the boundaries that determine where each of the district’s 12,000 students goes to school, establishing tracks that would allow the same groups of students to attend school together from kindergarten through 12th grade, and possibly changing existing busing programs.

The plan could also affect demographics and the ethnic makeup of individual schools.

John Gennaro, president of the Ventura Unified Education Assn., said he only became aware of the plan recently and he did not know specific details.

But he said it appeared that the plan “would touch not just one school, it would touch all of them. . . . This will probably generate a lot of interest.”

In a version of the plan presented to parents at E.P. Foster Elementary School last month, the city is divided into four areas: the west side, mid-town, the Saticoy area and the Victoria Avenue area. Students from the west-side and mid-town areas would go to Ventura High on Main Street; Victoria Avenue and east-side students would attend Buena High on Telegraph Road.

Under the plan, some students may attend school closer to where they live.

“They hope by clustering that they can stop having kids on buses for so long,” said Lorna Clifton, president of the E.P. Foster Parent Teacher Assn.

Some parents said the changes may become an emotional issue.

Parent Kathe Clabaugh said the plan “makes sense to me, but I think a lot of people are going to be upset.” She said some parents have grown accustomed to their children attending certain schools.

The district has 17 elementary schools that feed into four middle schools, De Anza, Cabrillo, Anacapa and Balboa. Middle school students then go to either Buena or Ventura high schools.

A committee of administrators has been studying demographics in the district since last summer, according to a district report. The district was scheduled to release a formal report on the far-reaching proposal, called clustering, today, officials said.

Board President Vincent Ruiz said the board requested the plan. “This is just the beginning,” Ruiz said. “Right now we have kids that go to the same elementary school and get separated at middle school. . . . We asked that something be put together to have continuum with kids in kindergarten through 12th grade so they would be in the same schools throughout their career.”

District officials were unavailable for comment Monday.

Parents said one reason that the boundary changes are being proposed is because of development in the city over the last 25 years and how that has affected where students go to school.

Some students who live in older homes in Montalvo and Saticoy, for example, are assigned to Ventura High and must bypass Buena High to get there. Other students in newer homes in the same areas, however, are assigned to Buena High.

And some students in the Rincon Point area, near the Santa Barbara County line, are bused to schools near Seaward Avenue, although they are closer to schools along Ventura Avenue.

Also, students who attend elementary school together are often sent to different middle and high schools under the current plan.

Nicky van Nieuwburg, president of the Ventura High School PTA, said she hoped that the plan would bring more ethnic balance to schools districtwide.

“I think that any kind of boundary changes that would include people of different ethnic groups coming together at one school would be great,” said Van Nieuwburg. “I think that’s a good deal. They set boundaries a long time ago, and the town grew in all different directions. The boundaries got way out of whack.”

Another reason for the boundary changes is financial. School officials now spend about $1.7 million on transportation, including busing. The boundary changes would reduce those costs, one elementary school principal said.

According to the plan, the boundary changes would allow for balancing of minority students within the four geographical areas and would allow for future growth. District officials project the need for both a new elementary school and a new middle school in eastern Ventura.

According to a district calendar, public hearings on the changes will be held at each middle school beginning next month. A final draft will be introduced to the board in March, and the board will vote on the plan in May.