Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Newhall School District Prepares for Transfers : Education: Parents choose neighborhoods based on campuses there, officials say. But next fall, 500 students will be moved to new Stevenson Ranch Elementary.

School officials are bracing for public reaction to changes they plan in attendance boundaries in the Newhall School District that will require the transfer of 500 students.

The transfers will be from the district’s six existing schools to Stevenson Ranch Elementary School when it opens next fall, said Supt. J. Michael McGrath.

About 275 students live in the Stevenson Ranch housing complex west of Santa Clarita, McGrath said.

Boundary changes are typically an emotionally charged issue, with parents stating they moved to a particular neighborhood so that their children could attend a specific school, McGrath said.

But McGrath said parents and students usually adapt to the changes. “Once all of the fur has flown and the smoke has cleared they’re happy with their new schools,” he said.

Dozens of parents have shown up at board meetings to protest the planned changes, which will be unveiled Dec. 6. Others say they won’t be concerned unless their children’s education will be substantially affected.

“My kids started at this school and they’re used to it, but at the same time my son likes the idea of going to a new school,” said Gloria Slavenwhite, waiting to pick her son up from Wiley Canyon Elementary School. “He’s in fifth grade now . . . so he would be the first to graduate from there.”

Slavenwhite, who lives at the edge of the city limits adjacent to Stevenson Ranch, said she would object to her son being transferred only if the new school lacks the gifted student program in which her son is now enrolled.

McGrath said he will complete as many as 10 alternative plans by Thanksgiving and probably submit the best three or four to the board of trustees, who must approve a plan.

“They’re going to remain a secret until the meeting,” he said.

Three public meetings will be scheduled after the plans are unveiled.

McGrath said the alternatives vary by emphasizing different factors, such as achieving ethnic balance and minimizing the number of students bused.

Allowing students to go to a school within walking distance and accepting parental input on school decisions were the most important factors cited in a mail-in survey returned by 1,218 parents--about a third of those who received it. Other factors, such as spreading special education programs evenly among schools, were also favored by a majority of parents.

The only category a majority of parents considered not important was achieving ethnic and socioeconomic balance among schools, with 53% stating the district should not make it a priority when drawing boundaries. McGrath said the district is required by law to make a reasonable effort to achieve ethnic balance.