Key School May Get Big Increase in Minorities : Ventura: Parents at Poinsettia Elementary have been the most outspoken about a proposal to change district attendance boundaries.

An elementary school that has been at the center of controversy over a proposal to redraw school boundaries in Ventura would receive one of the biggest increases in minority students under a plan that would minimize busing, according to district figures released Monday.

The percentage of minority students at Poinsettia Elementary School would increase from 13.6% to 28.5%, and total enrollment would climb from 435 to 540 students, district officials estimated.

One Poinsettia parent, however, said she was more concerned about the increase in class size than changes in minority enrollment.

“I don’t believe there’s adequate class size now--how are they going to accommodate 105 more kids?” said the parent, who asked that her name not be used. She said the plan “is not going to affect just Poinsettia, it’s a communitywide problem. It’s going to affect people at the beach, at the Rincon, everybody.”

Parents of Poinsettia students, however, have been the most outspoken about the plan because many of their children would be among those bused. They have held meetings at private homes and protested to board members at Ventura Unified School District board meetings. A parents’ forum on the issue is scheduled at 7 p.m. tonight in the school cafeteria.

Under the plan, minority students at Poinsettia would more than double. The reason for the increase is that many of the students who would leave the school and be transferred to Loma Vista Elementary live above Foothill Road, a predominantly white area, said Jean Rudolph, the district’s administrative assistant for business services.

And many students who would be reassigned to Poinsettia live south of the Santa Paula Freeway and are from neighborhoods with a higher percentage of minorities, primarily Latinos, Rudolph said.

There would also be a big increase in minority students at Saticoy Elementary School, where a bilingual education program will be moved from Juanamaria Elementary. At Saticoy, the percentage of minorities would increase from 32.9% to 53.7%, but total enrollment would decline, from 602 to 538 students.

Rudolph said minorities would increase at Saticoy because students from the heavily Latino Cabrillo Village and Saticoy areas, who compose much of the bilingual program, would be transferred to Saticoy.

Peggy Buehler, president of the Saticoy Elementary School PTA, said some parents, particularly Latinos, have criticized the plan because some children from their neighborhood were bused to Junipero Serra Elementary several years ago to achieve racial balance, and now may be sent back to Saticoy.

“What we see them doing now is a reversal,” Buehler said. “We really see it as backwards and behind the times because they are creating once again a low-income Hispanic school.”

Officials said they have proposed the boundary changes to allow more of the district’s 15,000 students to attend neighborhood schools, and to keep groups of children together from kindergarten through 12th grade. The plan could also curtail transportation costs by reducing the number of students who are bused, district officials said.

Seven elementary schools will not be affected by the plan, Rudolph said. Those schools are Arnaz, Blanche Reynolds, Lincoln, Montalvo, Mound, Oak View and Portola.

Rudolph said enrollment at these schools, particularly the ones in western Ventura, will not change because they already fall into a natural geographic cluster that fits into the redistricting proposal.

At four other elementary schools, both total enrollment and the percentage of minorities would decrease. Those schools are Elmhurst, Junipero Serra, Pierpont and Will Rogers.

The number of students would increase substantially at Loma Vista Elementary, where some Poinsettia students would be reassigned, and at Sheridan Way Elementary. However, the percentage of minority students at those two schools would change by less than two percentage points.

The boundary-change proposal calls for Cabrillo Middle School to be closed and a new school built to replace it. Many parents have questioned the decision, Rudolph said.

The aging school may be closed because it is deteriorating and portions of it are cracking and sinking into the ground, Rudolph said. The district closed another school, the 66-year-old Washington Elementary, for similar reasons in 1983, she said.

Some of Cabrillo’s buildings date back to the mid-1920s, she said. The school once served as Ventura’s original high school for grades seven through 10, Rudolph said. Students in the 11th and 12th grades attended a separate campus at the site of the present Ventura High School.

Another reason officials want to shut the school is that only 321 of its 805 students live within the school’s original boundaries. Of those, 182 live near Seaward Avenue and are actually within closer walking distance to Anacapa Middle School than to Cabrillo, officials said.

John Gennaro, president of the Ventura Unified Education Assn., said he has not yet had many comments from teachers concerned about the redistricting.

“Teachers are kind of waiting to see what falls out,” Gennaro said. “It only becomes an issue if people become displaced. If they have to transfer because of this, then we get into an area where teachers become concerned.”

MINORITY ENROLLMENT: PROPOSED BOUNDARIES

Present Percent Proposed Percent Enrollment Minority Enrollment Minority ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Arnaz 204 12.3 204 12.3 Blanche Reynolds 384 21.4 384 21.4 Elmhurst 563 25.6 304 16.1 E.P. Foster 498 52.8 516 52.1 Juanamaria 514 49.4 620 30.5 Junipero Serra 781 20.5 739 14.3 Lincoln 263 23.2 263 23.2 Loma Vista 292 15.4 429 13.8 Montalvo 482 42.3 482 42.3 Mound 548 5.1 548 5.1 Oak View 299 16.4 299 16.4 Pierpont 270 19.6 200 7.5 Poinsettia 435 13.6 540 28.5 Portola 425 23.5 425 23.5 Saticoy 602 32.9 538 53.7 Sheridan Way 408 63.5 601 65.1 Will Rogers 521 51.6 397 44.1 7,489 7,489 MIDDLE SCHOOLS Anacapa 848 23.5 1,060 21.8 Balboa 933 30.0 726 20.7 Cabrillo 782 18.3 closed closed New School --- --- 766 31.3 De Anza 676 42.3 687 41.8 3,239 3,239 HIGH SCHOOLS Buena 2,027 24.4 1,899 23.6 Ventura 1,707 27.4 1,835 28.0 3,734 3,734

*Figures do not include special education students.