Saugus Parents Fight Proposed New School Boundaries : Education: Group is upset over plans to bus students to new campuses. District says it will consider their concerns.

A group of Saugus parents, upset because their children might be bused to Canyon Country schools this fall, has asked for reconsideration of proposed new district boundaries, drawn to relieve overcrowding.

Under a preliminary plan proposed by the William S. Hart Union High School District, 220 to 250 students living in upper Bouquet Canyon would attend Sierra Vista Junior High School rather than Arroyo Seco Junior High.

Although the distance from Saugus to Sierra Vista and Arroyo Seco is similar, the parents say children would miss out by not attending school in their own community.

“We moved up here so our children would have the feeling of neighborhood,” said Chris Long, a parent who printed 2,000 flyers asking the district to reconsider its draft boundary plan.

“(District officials) are looking at their statistics and looking at their computers, but they’re not looking at what it’s going to do to a kid,” Long said.

The redrawn boundaries incorporate a new high school and junior high school opening in the fall, as well as anticipating two additional new campuses by the year 2000.

More than 11,000 students now attend the district’s six schools, 37% more than their listed capacity.

The new Valencia High School in Valencia and La Mesa Junior High School in Canyon Country will take pressure off existing schools, and the district is trying to redraw its boundaries so crowding is reduced on all campuses.

Both schools are being opened to lower grades this fall--seventh-graders at La Mesa and ninth- and 10th-graders at Valencia. District officials believe few juniors and seniors will want to transfer to a new school, so later grades are being added in subsequent years.

Parent Patty Kolin said she believes Arroyo Seco can accommodate the Saugus students through creative scheduling and the use of portable classrooms. Any costs could be made up in savings by not having to bus those students, she said.

Lew White, district facilities director, said he is not surprised by parental concerns over the new boundaries and that the district will consider their arguments.

“I don’t think I heard anything that came up that I didn’t think would come up,” White said.

Hart officials surveyed more than 800 parents during a series of January community meetings. The 470 responses indicated a strong desire to reduce school populations, keep students together when they move from elementary to junior high school and from junior high to high school, and cut travel time to and from campus whenever possible.

Some parents have asked about the quality of education if their children are relocated, indicating that one particular school may be better than another.

But White attributed that concern to school loyalty.

“People who like their own school tend to notice only the negative things in the newspaper about the other schools,” he said.

Hart trustees are scheduled to vote on the new school boundaries in March.