YORBA LINDA : School District Copes With New State Law

Former school board trustee Quentin Goodman has praised recent legislation that will allow all Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District students to attend district high schools as “one of the greatest things that has happened to our district.”

But even as Goodman and others who worked to get the legislation passed celebrated the signing of the bill by Gov. Pete Wilson earlier this month, the district is grappling with the question of what to do with the students who will be affected.

About 700 students living in pockets of Yorba Linda attend Troy High School in Fullerton, in many cases driving past one of Placentia-Yorba Linda’s three high schools to get there.

That arrangement came about when the old Yorba Linda School District merged with the Placentia Unified School District in 1989.

With passage of the recent legislation, which contains an amendment specifically addressing the Yorba Linda students, this school year many ninth-grade students living in the district will attend either Valencia, El Dorado or Esperanza high schools.

The new legislation would not require the students now attending Troy to transfer to the Placentia-Yorba Linda schools.

As part of an agreement with the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, students who have older siblings attending Troy may elect to attend school there.

Mike Bailey, director of facility planning for Placentia-Yorba Linda, said the district estimates that 80% of the ninth-grade students will choose to enroll in the district’s high schools.

The attendance boundaries committee appointed last spring by Placentia-Yorba Linda Supt. James O. Fleming must have a plan to accommodate those students.

The committee hopes to have a preliminary recommendation shortly after school starts in the fall. A public forum will be held to allow parents to comment and make suggestions about boundary changes.