PLACENTIA / YORBA LINDA : School Board Sets Goals for 1993-94

Selling parents on the middle school concept and relocating El Camino Real Continuation High School were two goals for the 1993-94 school year established last week by the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Education.

The goals and objectives are meant to guide Supt. James O. Fleming and his staff, but they are also a harbinger of future battles.

Parents have voiced strong opposition to the plan to move sixth-graders out of elementary school and into junior high to create three-year middle schools.

Some parents oppose the plan because they think it forces sixth-grade students into a more stressful environment.

They worry that 10- and 11-year-old children will be forced to compete academically and socially with students three to four years older.

But Fleming said the addition of sixth grade to middle schools has both academic and social value.

“Two years at middle school is not enough time to bond with the school or to prepare for high school,” Fleming said. “They go through (two-year middle schools) too quickly. When they get to high school, they are pretty much on their own.”

District officials are planning to hold informational meetings in the fall to sell parents on three-year middle schools.

Any plans to relocate El Camino Real will be watched closely by some parents who are concerned that the district is eyeing their children’s school as a possible site for the continuation school.

Last month, a flyer stating that Wagner Elementary School would be closed and that El Camino Real would be moved to the site was circulated among parents and residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the school.

Several who received the flyer angrily questioned the board on their intent.

While the district said there were no such plans, the fear has not completely abated.

Fleming said the district is looking at El Camino Real, located behind the district office in Placentia, from two perspectives.

“We’re looking at it from an asset-management standpoint but also program implications,” he said. “Maybe the property is more valuable used differently.”

The campus, which houses about 250 students, has limited facilities and is near capacity.

Moving the school to another location or expanding the current campus would allow the district to offer more programs, such as a vocational-technical lab.

Fleming also denied that he wants to move the school to an existing elementary school campus, but he did not rule out the possibility.

“We have no specific facilities in mind,” Fleming said.