HUNTINGTON BEACH : School District Plans Desegregation Talks

The Ocean View School District board, having modified its original plans to correct racial segregation and improve educational programs, has scheduled a new series of community meetings and hearings on the issues.

The board of trustees will hold a special study session tonight to discuss the district’s revised racial integration plan. Trustees abandoned the original desegregation proposal because the federal Office of Civil Rights, after months of studying the plan, has yet to approve it.

This revision resulted in a delay in the district’s plans to change the grade-level configurations at many schools. Both plans, originally intended to be implemented this fall, will now be delayed at least until September, 1992.

District officials will hold informational meetings on the new integration plan at 7 p.m. next Monday at Crest View Elementary School, April 17 at Marine View Elementary School and April 18 at Spring View Elementary School. A meeting is also scheduled at 7:45 p.m. on April 17 at Oak View Elementary School.

The school board will hold a study session April 30 to discuss the tentative comprehensive plan. On May 14, trustees are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the integration aspect of the plan, after which it will consider adopting that portion.

As originally planned, Ocean View proposed to solve the racial imbalances at its two most segregated schools by closing one, Crest View, and changing the other, Oak View, into a remedial language facility for students with limited English proficiency.

The reconfiguration concept, as tentatively proposed, would close two schools and change four kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools to middle schools attended by sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.