School Districts Outside L.A. Unified Draw Home Buyers

Like most parents, Kenneth and Michelle Manoff want their children to get the best education. After doing their homework about which schools are currently rated tops, the Manoffs decided to move into the Oak Park Unified School District in Agoura.

Kenneth Manoff works in Woodland Hills but he wouldn’t send his 8-year-old twins to school there. “We wouldn’t expose our kids to the L.A. Unified School District,” he said. Besides, “the Valley is not what it was when I grew up here. People don’t want to live in the Valley anymore.”

It seems that a growing number of parents are leaving parts of the San Fernando Valley behind in favor of newer communities with independent school districts. The Manoffs actually lived within the Oak Park district when their children were just infants. They moved to the Antelope Valley for a few years where they have been renters, Kenneth Manoff said, “but we should have never left the Oak Park district. Now we’re going back.” The Manoffs plan to move this month into a new three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath townhouse.

Schools were the most important factor for the Manoffs. “It was an absolutely critical part of the decision-making,” Kenneth Manoff said. In fact, the family had an opportunity to buy a bigger detached home in Canyon Country, but “we bought less home in order to get the best schools,” he said.

These days concern among parents about good schools doesn’t just relate to the size of classrooms or the experience of teachers. School can be a dangerous place for children these days, with drugs, gangs and all sorts of weaponry. Just 32% of eighth-graders in the L. A. Unified School District performed at adequate levels last spring, according to statewide test results released last month. L. A.’s school budget has been cut for the last four years, while the number of needy students has grown. Not surprisingly, scores on standardized tests have been dropping.

One L. A. County school district that has consistently fared well is the Las Virgenes Unified School District, which serves Calabasas, Agoura Hills and part of Westlake. Las Virgenes students, for example, scored 320 on their districtwide tests, compared with 213 for L. A. Unified students and a disheartening 153 for Compton students. Only students in Arcadia, Beverly Hills, Palos Verdes, San Marino, Wilsona and La Canada surpassed the performance of Las Virgenes on the state’s most recent round of standardized tests.

“We find people coming in for the schools from all over the Valley and Westside,” said Myra Turek, an agent with Fred Sands Realtors who specializes in Calabasas. “The majority of people buying in the area have schools as a main concern even if they don’t have school-age children,” said Turek, who is also a past president of the Calabasas Park Homeowners Assn. Buyers perceive the Las Virgenes schools as a real plus and sellers know it.

“Quality schools are a major consideration whether people have kids or not because it’s a big factor in resales,” observed Robert Taylor, a sales representative at the Capri townhouse development in Agoura. “Gang and drug problems exist in every school but here things are newer and the problems have been kept to a minimum.”

Taylor speaks from his own personal experience. He moved into the west Oak Park area from Woodland Hills so that his family would benefit from smaller class sizes and more parent participation in the schools.

About 50% of prospective buyers at Capri who have kids have been sending them to private schools, Taylor said. By buying into a good school district, these families can avoid paying private school tuition and spend the money instead on a nicer home.

“Any school district other than L. A.’s is a valuable sales tool,” said Timothy Freund, sales agent for homes in Rancho Conejo Village in Thousand Oaks that are being developed by S & S Construction Co., a division of Shapell Industries Inc. “It’s a very important issue.

“A majority of families are looking for a safe place to send their kids to school,” Freund said. His development is in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, which is perceived by many parents as a safe haven. “We get a lot of people from areas in the San Fernando Valley where the kids aren’t doing as well as their parents would like.” The parents often hope that a change of schools will be the answer.

Of course, schools can’t work miracles, and there are problems everywhere, but some schools do seem to be doing better than others.

Schools are so important to buyers that Shapell advertises that its Rancho Conejo Village homes are in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, and that its Bouquet Canyon Estates in Santa Clarita are served by the Saugus Unified School District. “When you’ve got it, flaunt it,” Freund said.