PLACENTIA : Proposal to Close School Spurs Protest

More than 70 parents of Brookhaven and Wagner elementary school students turned out at this week’s school board meeting to protest an advisory panel’s recommendation to close one of the schools.

Despite assurances from Supt. James O. Fleming that he does not support closing any school, parents have continued to condemn recommendations by the committee on school attendance boundaries that Brookhaven or Wagner be closed and its students be divided among several other elementary schools. The committee presented its report April 14 to Fleming.

Fleming’s own recommendations, culled from the report and presented to the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Trustees last week, did not mollify the parents. Fleming does not suggest closing any school. However, he recommends transferring Brookhaven’s non-contiguous attendance areas to other schools. Although he also recommends granting current students the option of continuing at Brookhaven, the district would not provide transportation for them.

If the boundary change is approved by the board, Brookhaven’s enrollment could drop to as low as 288 students. District policy is to consider closing a school when its attendance drops to below half of its capacity. Brookhaven’s capacity is 644 students.

The board took no action on Fleming’s recommendations other than to place most of them on the agenda for the next board meeting on May 25.

Speaker after speaker Tuesday night told the board that the committee’s recommendation to close either Brookhaven or Wagner was unfair.

“The people on your own committee told you that north Placentia was not adequately represented” on the committee that prepared the report, said Rick Weideman, whose children attend Wagner.

Weideman asked the board to suspend the findings of the boundary committee and take no action on its recommendations.

Other parents protested Fleming’s recommendation to change Brookhaven’s attendance area.

Debbie Stone, who lives in one of Brookhaven’s non-contiguous attendance areas, said the street conditions near her home would make it dangerous for her son, who is bused to Brookhaven, to walk or ride a bicycle to school.

“There are no sidewalks, and kids would have to cross a four-lane highway,” Stone said. She contends that the street conditions would force the district to bus students, eliminating the savings the district said is its reason for changing the boundaries.