Boundary Shifts May Move 7,500 Students : Schools: The changes would eliminate some busing and would effect about half of Ventura's elementaries.

Boundary Shifts May Move 7,500 Students : Schools: The changes would eliminate some busing and would effect about half of Ventura’s elementaries.

By ADRIANNE GOODMAN

Jan. 9, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The schools most affected by the extensive boundary changes proposed Tuesday by Ventura school district administrators are Cabrillo Middle School on the city’s west side and about half of Ventura’s 17 elementaries, including many in the city’s northeast, the district plan shows.

District officials said they had not yet calculated the exact number of students who will change schools, but one official said that as many as half the district’s 15,000 students may attend different middle or high schools than they would under present boundaries.

Among the elementary schools, numerous students from Juanamaria, Saticoy, Junipero Serra, Poinsettia, Loma Vista and Sheridan Way schools would be assigned to other schools, according to the proposed realignments.

For example, some students at Juanamaria and Junipero Serra schools on the west side would be transferred to Saticoy, while some students who now attend Saticoy school would go to Juanamaria. Affected students at those three schools are currently being bused across town.

The plan also calls for some students from Loma Vista, Will Rogers, E.P. Foster and Pierpont Elementary schools to be reassigned to Sheridan Way in west Ventura. That would eliminate some busing, district officials said.

Some students who live in east Ventura and now are bused to other schools out of their neighborhood will also be shifted to a new elementary school planned for their fast-growing community, officials said.

The greatest change among the middle schools would be at Cabrillo in central Ventura. That aging facility would be closed, with its former students being transferred to Anacapa Middle School and to a proposed new school planned for a 20-acre site on Utica Avenue south of the Santa Paula Freeway in Saticoy.

“Cabrillo’s boundaries are spread all over the city right now,” said district administrator Jean Rudolph. Many of the school’s students do not live in the area surrounding it on Santa Clara Street near Main Street, she said.

Under the present boundaries, most students who attend Saticoy Elementary graduate to Balboa Middle School. But under the new plan, many of those students would instead be assigned to the new school planned for Utica Avenue in Saticoy.

De Anza Middle School would be the least affected junior high because of its relatively “clean boundaries” on the city’s west side, off Cameron Street just west of Ventura Avenue, Rudolph said. De Anza draws students from along Ventura Avenue and into the city’s Oak View section, Rudolph said.

Some students who live in the coastal Rincon Point area north of Ventura and who now attend Cabrillo would be sent to De Anza instead of the more-distant Cabrillo, she said.

On the high school level, Rudolph said, a “large section” of students from the Montalvo area near the Ventura Freeway, who now attend Buena High, would go to Ventura High. And many students in the city’s east end who attend Ventura High would instead be transferred to Buena.

Students in the heavily Latino Saticoy area would remain at Buena, Rudolph said.

“We’re not changing the ethnic makeup of the high schools at all,” Rudolph said.

The redistricting plan will eliminate “islands of students” who are now bused past schools to other schools, district officials said.

Rudolph said the plan “is not in concrete at all and it won’t be until after all the public hearings and the public input.” A decision by the school board is expected in May.

FEEDER SCHOOLS PROPOSAL

Feeder schools under the proposed boundaries. Students at year-round Mound Elementary would go to schools in their neighborhoods. BUENA HIGH SCHOOL

Balboa Middle School

Proposed new middle school

Juanamaria Elementary

Junipero Serra Elementary

Saticoy Elementary

Elmhurst Elementary

Poinsettia Elementary

Portola Elementary

Proposed new elementary school

VENTURA HIGH SCHOOL