LOS ALAMITOS : Schools Report on Ethnic Makeup

The Los Alamitos Unified School District’s student population remains predominantly white, although the percentage has dipped for the third straight year as the number of Latino students continues to grow.

Whites comprise 76% of the student population, down by 1% from the last school year and 3% from the 1991-92 school year, according to statistics released by the school district last week.

Enrollment by Latino students increased from 9% two years ago to 11% for the current school year, but there was hardly any change in enrollment among blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Filipinos.

Assistant Supt. David Hatton, who presented the figures during the school board meeting Tuesday, said the enrollment reflects the ethnic makeup of the communities that the school district serves.

The district serves Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and Seal Beach, which have mostly white residents, Hatton said.

State law requires that the school district survey its schools every year to ensure there is ethnic balance and no concentration of students from just one ethnic group in certain schools.

But Hatton said the schools do not have quotas or prescribed percentages from ethnic groups.

There are 7,414 students enrolled in the district’s five elementary schools, one middle school, one continuation high school and one high school. During the past three years, enrollment has increased by more than 800 students, Hatton said.

About half of the new students are transfers from other school districts, and half are from families who recently moved into the area, he said.

Asians comprise 7% of the student population, Pacific Islanders 1%, Filipinos 1% and blacks 4%.

In Orange County, 49.2% of students are white, 34.3% are Latino, 12.4% are Asian, 2.2% are black, 1% are Filipino, 0.5% are Pacific Islanders and 0.5% are Native American.