GARDEN GROVE : Committee Calls for Reopening 3 Schools

A surge in the number of school-age children has prompted an advisory committee to recommend the reopening of three schools in the Garden Grove Unified School District.

The 15-member advisory panel called last week for the reopening of the Walton and Peters schools in September and Brookhurst School next February. The three schools were closed in 1980.

The district school board is expected to take up the recommendations at its March 17 meeting.

School officials predict an increase of about 1,200 pupils next year, boosting total enrollment to slightly more than 41,000. District enrollment peaked at 53,114 in the 1968-69 school year, but it had slipped to 36,164 in 1988-89.

“We looked at enrollment trends and the need for relief in some geographic areas,” said Linda Hambey, a member of the advisory panel, known as the Site Utilization Committee. “We wanted to create neighborhood schools as much as possible and not bus kids where they don’t belong.”

School officials will hold several neighborhood meetings next week to discuss with affected parents the school boundary changes that the reopenings would cause.