HUNTINGTON BEACH : Protesters Decry Plan for Schools

About 50 parents marched and chanted outside the Ocean View School District main offices Tuesday to show their opposition to a plan that would close one elementary school and convert four others to middle schools.

Most of the parents are members of Residents Against Middle Schools, which formed recently to lobby against the district’s reconfiguration proposal.

The crowd marched in a circle for nearly an hour Tuesday morning, carrying signs and shouting slogans such as “No more middle schools!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, we don’t want our schools to go!”

The demonstration marked a new tactic for the parents, who for months have used letters, neighborhood canvassing and speeches at school board meetings to express their oppositions.

Group leaders said they believe their efforts have so far been ignored and that they hoped the demonstration would help focus attention on their concerns.

“We wanted to try a different kind of protest,” said Cathy Thompson, the mother of a Mesa View School student. “We’ve been trying everything we can think of. . . . I think maybe we’ve been a little bit too polite.”

The parents at the march represented Haven View School, which would be closed under the plan; and Marine View, Mesa View and Spring View schools, which along with Vista View would become middle schools with classes for grades six through eight. Those schools now serve students from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Eleven other schools, which now are either kindergarten through sixth-grade or kindergarten through eighth-grade campuses, would be converted to kindergarten through fifth-grade elementary schools. Crest View School has already been scheduled to close after the 1991-92 school year under a desegregation plan trustees approved last month.

Attendance boundaries would change districtwide. Ocean View officials estimate that about one-third of the district’s 8,600 students would move to different schools under the proposal.

Ocean View officials say the change to middle schools--which, if the board approves it would take effect in September, 1992--is needed to make better use of the district’s resources in a time of declining enrollment.

Parents against the change argue that it would disrupt strong academic programs at many schools and divide neighborhoods and families. Some parents said they also believe that the plan would hurt the neighborhood-school idea and therefore discourage volunteerism among parents.

District officials did not come outside to address the protesters.

After the demonstration, however, Supt. Monte McMurray said he and the board are considering the opponents’ views in their study of the proposal. “They’re saying they want to leave their school the way it is, that it has a fine program. And I understand why they say that,” he said.

McMurray said, however, that he believes the proposal will improve academic programs in the district.

The board is scheduled to vote on a comprehensive reorganization proposal June 4. The proposal would combine reconfiguration with the district desegregation plan at a projected cost of about $2.5 million.

McMurray said the district could bear the cost through funds from its capital reserve account and by closing Haven View and Crest View, which would save about $500,000 per year.