CAMARILLO : Parents to Protest Middle School Plan

A large group of Camarillo parents plans to protest tonight against a school board proposal to bring middle schools to their district, on the grounds that it could mean busing children away from neighborhood facilities.

Some parents are talking about trying to recall any trustees whose campaign promises were to maintain neighborhood schools but who now say they will consider busing students to lessen overcrowding.

“If they do anything at all that would stop my child from having access to Las Colinas . . . you bet,” said John Tinkle, referring to a possible recall effort.

Tinkle is among the parents who live near Las Colinas School, built for kindergarten through eighth grade, who fear that its size will make it a candidate for a middle school.

But Pleasant Valley Elementary School District President Leonard J. Caligiuri said Las Colinas “didn’t appear to me to be a viable candidate” for a middle school, because there do not appear to be enough students in the area to make it a cost-effective option.

“Personally, I’m for neighborhood schools, and I’m against busing,” he said. As for any recall vote, he added, “I’m not worried about that. If there’s a recall vote, so be it.”

Trustees recently agreed to consider changing district boundaries to ease the enrollment problem, which has left some schools overcrowded. Bringing middle schools to Pleasant Valley, one of the few districts in Ventura County that have none, could be done at the same time, trustees suggested.

Parent Barbara Metier, whose children are 2 and 6, said some parents not only disagree with the busing proposal, they also object to the middle school concept.

“We’re against it because we feel we’re pushing our children too fast,” she said.

The trustees, Metier added, “appear to be trying to implement a major radical restructuring of the school system here, and we just don’t think it’s justified.”

The current middle school proposal is “almost like a punishment for not passing the bond,” she said, referring to the $55-million construction and renovation bond issue that voters rejected in November.