150 Protest Boundary Shift for High Schools

More than 150 students and parents packed the Ventura High School auditorium Tuesday night to voice opposition to new high school boundaries proposed for the Ventura Unified School District.

“We feel riding a bus clear across town to Ventura High is ridiculous,” said parent Jeannette Wilson, a resident of Ventura’s Montalvo neighborhood. “I feel we are being sacrificed to make even numbers at the high schools.”

Wilson’s comments came as the five-member school board considered new boundaries that would move students who live north of Foothill Road and the Montalvo neighborhood from Buena High School to Ventura High.

Supt. Cesare Caldarelli Jr. told board members that the plan was the best way to prepare the district for the future. He said the recommended changes will balance enrollment between Ventura and Buena high schools and eliminate the patchwork structure that placed children from adjacent neighborhoods in different schools.

“This recommendation cleanly separates the district into two somewhat equal population areas and provides for any growth trends projected in eastern Ventura,” Caldarelli said.

Buena High has 2,103 students while Ventura High has 1,786, he said. With the new boundaries, he predicted that enrollment at the two schools will eventually differ by 31 students.

“I do not understand the apparent preoccupation of having Buena High and Ventura High equal size,” said Stephen Kaplan, parent of a Buena High student. “There does not appear to be a legitimate urgency to the issue.”

Opposition to the boundaries came mainly from residents of Montalvo and the four hillside subdivisions north of Foothill Road. Parents in those areas argued that it is illogical to send their children to Ventura High when they live within walking distance of Buena.

“What you’ve done is take a neighborhood school away from us,” said Alan Jacobs, a parent of an eighth-grade girl scheduled to attend Buena High in the fall. “Right now, everyone in the hillside community . . . is very bitter over the way this has gone, and you’ve lost our support in the future.”

Caldarelli has recommended that boundary changes take effect in July, but parents involved in the debate have suggested that any changes be implemented in September.

At either start date, the plan would not affect any students now enrolled at either school. Eighth-graders in those neighborhoods would be the first class to fall under the new boundaries.

The boundaries would also consolidate several islands in eastern Ventura and the Saticoy area into the Buena High School zone. Some students in those islands have been bused nearly eight miles each way to Ventura High for years, although they live only three to four miles from Buena.

This element of the boundary changes has not stirred any controversy.

The sweeping changes were proposed in January, 1991, when officials first discussed redrawing boundaries for the district’s two high, four middle and 18 elementary schools. After parents objected, officials backed off and held a series of public hearings.

In August, district officials created a special parents committee with 68 representatives from around the district to come up with a new plan.

Several of those speaking against the new boundaries were members of the parents committee, which was deeply divided on how to redraw the high school zones. After months of deliberations, the committee approved the same boundary plan by one vote.

The school board also discussed new boundaries for the district’s middle and elementary schools. But the proposed changes did not draw opposition because the alterations were overwhelmingly approved by the parents committee.

The new boundaries affected only a small number of students at two elementary schools.

In addition, the board created a new feeder system for the middle schools to allow entire elementary school student bodies to progress to their respective middle schools as a group.