Pleasant Valley District Ends Impasse on Overcrowding

Pleasant Valley School District trustees have broken through a weeks-long impasse and approved a plan to handle a projected overcrowding problem next year at two intermediate schools.

After being deadlocked 2 to 2 at the March 19 meeting, trustees on Thursday splintered the overcrowding issue into two problems, and voted only on the first: where the intermediate students should go to school.

The second problem is how to bus students to schools districtwide. The board asked staff members to attack it in a comprehensive long-range district plan that will also address the pros and cons of year-round school, the possibility of bringing in middle schools and solutions to transportation conflicts expected in the coming school year.

Associate Supt. Howard Hamilton said he hopes to have the plan ready for the board’s first meeting in May.

Trustees unanimously passed a motion made by Trustee Jan McDonald to handle the projected overflow of intermediate students living in eastern Camarillo without spending any money on portable classrooms.

As a result, the district will eliminate transfers from Los Altos Intermediate School to Monte Vista and allow a limited number of students from eastern Camarillo to attend less-crowded Los Altos rather than Monte Vista.

Trustees again postponed voting on a controversial proposal to change the starting times of schools districtwide, which would save $32,000, or the cost of buying two new buses. The schedule change would allow some district buses to make double runs.