TUSTIN : School Trustees OK New Boundaries

Over protests from nearly a dozen parents, Tustin Unified School District trustees approved new boundaries for Tustin and Foothill high schools.

The school board voted unanimously at a capacity-crowd meeting on Monday to approve the boundary changes that will affect almost 300 students. Officials said the new boundaries will even out the two schools’ attendance numbers and more evenly distribute minority students.

The new boundaries will mean most students living in the area north of the intersection of La Colina Drive and Tustin Ranch Road, and northwest of the intersection of Newport Boulevard and Santa Ana Freeway will attend Foothill High School.

With existing boundaries, students north of 17th Street and east of La Colina Drive and those south of Browning Avenue to the Santa Ana Freeway attend Foothill High School.

“I am not really surprised,” Kay Needle, president of the Parent-Teacher Organization Coordinating Council, said of the vote. “The board and the district have been looking at the issue for quite a while.”

She added: “Foothill has really lost too many programs because of declining enrollment.”

Foothill High School has 558 fewer students than Tustin High. Supt. David L. Andrews said Foothill students have had fewer course offerings because of the low enrollment.

Additionally, Foothill High’s student population does not reflect the ethnic diversity of the district, officials said. Minority students constitute only 23% of Foothill’s student body, while that group is 51% of Tustin High’s student body. Districtwide, the minority student population is 44%, district records show.

“Segregation couldn’t stand in the South . . . and it won’t stand in Tustin in 1992,” said board member Gloria M. Tuchman. “As a child, I was a victim of (segregation), and I refuse to let it happen to our children in Tustin.”

Andrews said the new boundaries will not evenly distribute the district’s minority students but will bring more minority students to the Foothill campus.

The proposal drew fire from parents and residents from both sides of the boundaries. Residents in the Foothill boundary area who are now part of the Tustin attendance zone argued that the change will decrease their property values and could lower the overall academic achievement of Foothill students.

Residents in the Tustin area whose children will now attend Foothill High said it is senseless to send students across town and that those from low-income or minority families will be ostracized for their economic and cultural differences.

“Any time a fear of harassment or ridicule prevents our kids from making progress, then racism has won,” Tuchman said.