High School Curbs Open-Campus Policy : Education: Students can leave at lunch if they get parental consent. Complaints from residents prompt the rule change.

Beginning in September, Santa Monica High School students will need parental consent to venture off campus at lunchtime.

Responding to complaints from area residents, the school board Monday night decided that students whose parents come to the school and sign a release will receive a sticker on their identification card that allows them to leave during the 43-minute lunch period. Security guards at two gates will check the cards before allowing students off campus.

Currently, about 1,200 of the school’s 2,700 students leave the campus for lunch, said Principal Nardy Samuels.

“It may be necessary to close the campus more completely than this,” said board member Connie Jenkins. But she added that the plan was “a good first step.”

Under the high school’s open-campus policy, students have been allowed to leave the school grounds during lunch. The new restrictions were prompted by neighbors’ complaints that students loitered and vandalized nearby property.

Albertine Rucker, who has lived on nearby Bay Street for 48 years, told the board that she favored closing the campus entirely.

“We have to wait for weekends, holidays and summer vacation for peace and quiet around where we live,” she said.

A number of plans for the Pico Boulevard campus have been considered over the past year, including closing the campus altogether. Last month, Samuels suggested that the campus be closed at lunchtime to everyone but seniors.

Board members Monday also approved other measures designed to keep the students on campus--including a wider range of food and drink offerings and updated restrooms.

One of the major reasons students are leaving campus is to use bathrooms that are cleaner and better supplied than those at school, board member Peggy Lyons said. “It’s pretty outrageous,” she said.

Renovating the bathrooms will cost from $40,000 to $60,000, said Art Cohen, assistant superintendent for business.

The members argued about the pros and cons of offering junk foods, with some of them adamant that soda, chips and other snacks should not be sold on campus. They finally agreed that the increased food offerings will be based on “sound nutritional value” and reviewed by the health advisory committee.

The board has the option of purchasing food from fast-food restaurants and selling it on campus. But its decision to regulate nutritional content will limit the types of food that can be sold on campus, officials said.

The plan also calls for purchasing outdoor tables, estimated at $12,000, and additional security, estimated at up to $12,000.

The board will review the policy in February, 1992.