YORBA LINDA : Law Lets Students Go to Closer Schools

Gov. Pete Wilson has signed into law a bill that will allow students from west Yorba Linda to attend high schools in their hometown rather than be bused to Troy High School in Fullerton.

Wilson approved Assembly Bill 287, authored by Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress). The measure allows students to attend schools in the district in which they live or their parents work, resolving a long-running dispute between Fullerton and Yorba Linda school officials.

Yorba Linda ninth-graders can now attend high schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District beginning in the fall of 1993.

Under a decades-old arrangement, more than 700 Yorba Linda high school students are now bused to Troy, even though most of them live within walking distance of one of the three Placentia-Yorba Linda district high schools--Esperanza, El Dorado and Valencia.

When the Yorba Linda and Placentia school districts merged in 1988, the Fullerton Joint Union High School District agreed not to oppose the merger if the west Yorba Linda students continued to attend Troy.

Fullerton school officials argued over the years that the loss of the commuter Yorba Linda students could force the closure of one of their high schools and the subsequent loss of revenue.

But in May, Fullerton and Yorba Linda school officials agreed to Allen’s legislation, which also allows the current Yorba Linda students at Troy to complete their courses of study there.