PLACENTIA : Parents Reassured on School Closures

Supt. James O. Fleming is trying to reassure parents that he is not seeking to close any schools, despite a committee’s recommendation that at least one elementary school in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District be closed.

Fleming addressed parents of Brookhaven Elementary and several other schools at a meeting organized by Brookhaven’s PTA on Monday night. Brookhaven is one of the schools targeted by the boundary advisory committee as a candidate for closure.

The committee, which Fleming appointed last June, issued its recommendations in a 150-page report last week. The report presents 10 scenarios for dealing with such factors as transportation costs, population growth and shifts, ethnic balance and maintaining schools.

In six of the scenarios, the committee recommends closing Placentia’s Topaz Elementary. The committee also presented scenarios that include closing Brookhaven and Wagner Elementary.

Fleming told parents that the committee’s report contained sections that he does not support and will not recommend to the Board of Trustees.

“I am not going to recommend closing a school--it is not appropriate,” Fleming said. “I am personally not in favor of it.”

Parents questioned why seven of the 10 scenarios in the committee’s report affect a relatively small area in Placentia. Yorba Linda is addressed in three scenarios, with relatively little change in attendance boundaries. No schools are recommended for closure in Yorba Linda. In fact the committee recommended designating two new school sites in Yorba Linda.

Fleming told the parents that the committee’s report was much broader than he had intended. He also said that he did not agree with several of the committee’s recommendations and that some problems he wanted addressed were ignored in the report.

Nevertheless, Fleming said, the report still had some valuable information, and he defended the committee’s methods.

“I appreciate all the hard work the committee went through,” Fleming said. “I went into this process looking for an unbiased report on the district and I do think we achieved that.”