SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Five-Part Plan for Schools Approved

A plan that will overhaul attendance boundaries, change a junior high school into a middle school and put an elementary school on a year-round schedule was approved by the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees this week.

The plan, developed by a committee of parents and administrators and approved unanimously by the trustees Monday, has five parts:

* Niguel Hills Junior High School will become the district’s first middle school this fall and will absorb sixth-grade classes from Crown Valley, Marian Bergeson, Moulton and George L. White elementary schools.

* Eighth-graders living in northern Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo will graduate to Capistrano Valley High School instead of Dana Hills High School beginning in September.

* San Juan Elementary School will be open year-round beginning in September, 1992. Board members said this part of the plan is tentative and may be rescinded.

* The attendance boundary between San Juan and Harold Ambuehl Elementary School will be changed, a move that will affect about 50 children.

* Ambuehl, which is already on a year-round schedule, will hold an annual lottery for parents outside its attendance boundaries who want their children to attend the school. The number of outside students admitted would vary each year but could be as many as 75.

“School boundaries are looked at yearly,” said William Eller, assistant superintendent of instructional operations, who oversaw the committees. “In a growing school district like ours, the situation requires that the district react to substantial growth in one part.”

The district also has plans to covert its other three junior high schools--Marco F. Forster, Fred Newhart and Shorecliffs--into middle schools within the next two years, although Forster may not have enough classrooms to add sixth-graders.

The change is being made now at Niguel Hills because of overcrowding at the four elementary schools, while there is a surplus of class space in Laguna Niguel, officials said.

The decision to transfer students from northern Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo to Capistrano Valley was caused by overcrowding at Dana Hills, officials said. The plan will affect about 140 students.

All northern Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo students will be transferred to Aliso Niguel High School when it opens in September, 1993.

The decision to change San Juan Elementary into a year-round school was also based on overcrowding, officials said. Built for 1,000 students, it will have an enrollment of 1,200 by 1992, according to district estimates.