PLACENTIA : Boundary Debate at Valencia High

Dueling petitions have been circulating at Valencia High School this spring.

On the one hand, parents and teachers at the school are asking Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Supt. James O. Fleming to “adjust the ethnic and socioeconomic distribution of students throughout the district, rather than concentrating (Latino and poor students) in the Valencia attendance area.”

About 180 have signed that petition, which was circulated by the Parents, Teachers and Students Assn. The petition was submitted in March and more signatures are being sent each month.

On the other hand, 206 English-as-a-Second-Language students at Valencia sent their own petition to Fleming earlier this month, saying they want to stay at the school.

“This school is close to our homes and in our community,” the petition reads. “We feel that the special ESL services offered at Valencia H.S. help us to receive the excellent education we deserve.”

The two petitions represent the range of concerns Fleming must deal with as he considers what to do with recommendations made by an attendance boundaries committee. Fleming will hold a study session Tuesday to discuss the recommendations.

Earlier this month, the committee presented Fleming with 10 scenarios, including several that propose shifting a predominantly Latino neighborhood out of Valencia’s attendance area and into the El Dorado High School attendance area.

That recommendation was lauded by Valencia parents, many of whom feel the school’s 40% Latino population places a great burden on the school. But, as the student petition indicates, at least some of its Latino students and their families would not willingly leave the school.

At a public forum held in January to gather input on boundary changes, several parents in the Valencia attendance area said they did not want their children to attend El Dorado. Pointing to the distance of the school from their homes, they said their children would be unable to participate in after-school activities if they couldn’t walk home.

The odds seem stacked against Valencia maintaining all of its minority students. The schools’ PTSA is supported by Principal Joe Quartucci, who said he thinks the large number of non-English speaking students at the school places a disproportionate burden on Valencia’s resources and its teachers.

If Fleming does decide to adjust the Valencia boundaries and to send some of its minority students elsewhere, it will not come any time soon. Fleming said he would not make any boundary changes for the coming school year, and that it may take several years to implement all the suggestions he will make to the board.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Educational Services Center, 4999 Casa Loma Ave., Yorba Linda.