ORANGE : 6th-Graders Going to Middle School

In a controversial move, the Orange Unified School Board voted this week to relocate sixth-graders from Lampson Elementary School to Portola Middle School next fall.

School officials were pleased with the Thursday night decision because they argued it would relieve overcrowding in the Lampson classrooms by removing 120 sixth-graders from the school’s 1,020 student population.

“I’m stunned. I’m delighted,” said Lampson Principal Carolyn Reichert. “They did everything I wanted them to do.”

The plan, which also has support from the teachers’ union, may serve as a pilot program to integrate sixth-graders into middle schools throughout the district. Parents who do not want their children to attend Portola were given the option of sending them to any school in the district that has room.

Remodeling at Portola to accommodate the new children was expected to cost the district more than $124,000.

Trustee Jeff Holstien told a crowd of about 60 parents that the plan was the “best thing we can do educationally for the children.”

But five parents urged the board not to transfer their children to Portola, citing rumors of discipline and drug problems at the school. Some parents also said they feared their 10- and 11-year-olds would “grow up too fast” if placed in a school with older students.

“The thought of (my daughter) attending Portola frightens me a great deal,” said Jack Gergen, 41, father of a fifth-grader. “I don’t feel very comfortable having my very naive daughter going to school with very much older kids. She’s not ready.”

Debbie Harris, also the parent of a fifth-grader, called the decision unfair.

“Not one of us at Lampson want this,” Harris said. “We’re going to fight it, but it probably won’t do any good.”

Critics of the plan said they preferred busing children to another elementary school or placing more portable classrooms at Lampson.

The board vote was 5 to 0 with two members--Nancy Moore and Russ Barrios--absent.