Integration Plan Draws Ire in Vista : Education: Program seeks ethnic balance between Mission Meadows and Santa Fe/California elementaries.

About 375 parents and teachers, some angry and all with opinions, vented their frustrations to the Vista Unified School District board at a special meeting Thursday night on a plan to integrate two of the district’s elementary schools.

The program would pair up the yet-to-be-built Mission Meadows School with Santa Fe/California Elementary School in an effort to lower the density of ethnic minor ity students at Santa Fe/California.

Mission Meadows would serve third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students, while Santa Fe/California would handle kindergartners and first- and second-graders. The schools would also offer magnet programs, such as extended days for kindergarten students, non-graded primary classes and music programs.

Parents from both schools opposing the program expressed concern that their children would be forced to switch schools too frequently and would be bused unnecessarily. Some parents, primarily ones living in north Vista, feared that the busing would cause housing values to plummet.

“I as a consumer would not have bought my home if I was told my children would be bused to Santa Fe,” said Tracey Raider, a Mission Meadows parent.

Raider also expressed concern that Santa Fe/California children had scored lower on standardized tests than other children in the district.

But other parents said that splitting up the grades would give the schools a chance to focus on the grade levels they are teaching, and many Santa Fe/California parents said they would like to give their children a chance to attend a newly built school.

“The parents I spoke with said they were willing to sacrifice their children getting on the bus because they feel it is the best thing for their children’s education,” said Henrietta Lewis, a second-grade bilingual teacher at Santa Fe/California, who said she represented 60 Spanish-speaking parents.

Santa Fe/California is one of the oldest schools in the district and has had a steadily increasing ethnic minority population for 15 years.

“Parents feel that Santa Fe/California will have more opportunities for the preschoolers and kindergartners, and this whole school would be dedicated for the early readers under this program,” Lewis said.

But other Santa Fe/California parents saw it as a clear racial dispute.

“I see it as the rich people in north Vista wanting to keep the Mexicans out of their neighborhoods,” said Kimberly Mendoza, who has two children attending Santa Fe/California.

Mendoza, however, opposes the plan, saying her children “are not going to feel comfortable being discriminated against” at Mission Meadows if they go there.

Without the magnet program, school officials estimated, Mission Meadows would have an ethnic minority enrollment of 19%. Santa Fe/California, in the center of town, has an ethnic minority en rollment of 72%, the highest in the district, and is projected to have an ethnic minority enrollment topping 80% if the program is not instituted.

The program hopes to form two schools with the same ethnic minority ratio.

“The main issue comes down to racial imbalance and the community’s concern about that,” said newly elected board member Deidre Holliday, whose district has an ethnic minority enrollment of 40%.

School officials project the program would cost the district at least $65,000 a year in busing and operation of the magnet.

Mission Meadows, on the north side of Vista in a predominantly white neighborhood, is closer to Alamosa Park and Bobier elementary schools than to Santa Fe/California, which is 5.5 miles away. School officials estimate the bus ride between Santa Fe/California and Mission Meadows to be 15 minutes, but some children may have longer bus trips on more than one bus.

Supt. Rene Townsend said she did not expect the issue to draw as much concern as it has, but said that “any time you try to set boundaries, you get crowds.”

At a meeting held last month, more than 200 parents packed the board room to voice their concerns, prompting the school board to call Thursday’s special meeting. A vote on the proposal is expected next Thursday.