School Boundary Change Proposal in Santa Clarita Angers Parents : Education: Many fear increased crime, decline in academic quality if poor, Latino students move into mostly white elementary classrooms.

Parents in this suburban community are upset over a proposed redrawing of elementary school boundaries.

But they are not just concerned that their children might be transferred to a different school. Some are worried that children from the poor side of this mostly middle-class, mostly white community will be coming to their neighborhood schools.

Margie Veis, who moved from Van Nuys to the Stevenson Ranch housing development just west of Santa Clarita two years ago, said the mostly Latino East Newhall neighborhood--from which some students could be transferred to a school in her development--reminds her of the high-crime area she fled.

“You don’t want to come across as a bad person,” said Veis, who has two children of elementary-school age. “But when you’ve seen it happen . . . . I saw the crime, saw the drugs, saw the drive-by shootings, and it was time to get out.”

Other parents, who last week flocked to public meetings held by the Newhall School District to comment on three boundary proposals, complained that Latinos do not get heavily involved in parent-school activities. Resources that could go to regular instruction, some parents said, are instead being used in bilingual classrooms, shortchanging English-dominant students.

Alba Steck, community liaison for the district’s bilingual program, tried to counter that argument, but about 10 parents loudly interrupted her, insisting bilingual education had lowered standards in the 5,000-student district.

Later, Chris Marchese, whose daughter attends Old Orchard Elementary School, said: “I will say that since we’ve gone to a bilingual program the level of education is not what it should be.” Old Orchard has a 42% minority enrollment.

But at least one parent, Shirley Laurino of Valencia, views the comments by other parents as shortsighted--and she said so at the meeting.

The next day, she added: “These stupid parents, they’re so worried about someone getting to know someone from the other side of tracks. They’re all going to be in the same setting when they get together in junior high.”

And school officials pointed out Newhall Elementary School--the school closest to East Newhall and with a 53% minority enrollment--was one of only 220 schools in the United States this year to win a National Blue Ribbon Award from the U. S. Department of Education for excellence in its overall curriculum.

The boundary changes are needed to ensure there are enough students attending the new Stevenson Ranch Elementary School set to open next fall, said Supt. J. Michael McGrath. He said 283 students who live in Stevenson Ranch will attend the school, but about 200 more need to be moved in from Valencia and Newhall to help even out enrollments throughout the seven-school district.

One of the proposed plans would transfer students from the upscale Valencia Summit neighborhood to Stevenson Ranch. That proposal would take 186 students from Old Orchard Elementary, raising the minority ratio there from 42% to 49%, which concerns parents who don’t want more resources devoted to Old Orchard’s bilingual program.

“I want whatever plan that is going to keep Old Orchard as it is,” Marchese said of the three boundary plans. “I just hate to see a larger Hispanic group going to Old Orchard.”

Another plan would send about 160 students from East Newhall, who are currently attending Old Orchard, to the Stevenson Ranch school. McGrath said Old Orchard’s bilingual program would be transferred to Stevenson Ranch as well, since the new school would have a 49% minority ratio and Old Orchard’s would drop to 23%.

Concerns about minority enrollment dominated the district’s first meeting of about 50 parents last Monday night at Wiley Canyon Elementary School. Julie Glenn, a Valencia resident, suggested Newhall Elementary School be turned into a “magnet” school for all Latinos in the bilingual program, because it would help those students learn English faster.

The idea was well-received by other parents in the audience, some nodding their heads or muttering comments of approval. But McGrath said such a school would amount to an illegal segregation of students.

“What you’d have is a Mexican school,” he said.

“What you’ve got is a Mexican neighborhood,” Glenn replied.

“I think we’d end up in court and we’d lose,” McGrath answered.

It was one of many exchanges between district officials and parents at the meetings. The aim of the meetings, officials said, was to gauge public sentiment and to pass on those thoughts to trustees.

Few of the 100 parents at a second meeting, held Tuesday night at Valencia Valley Elementary School, were worried about who would be transferred to their school. Residents there focused instead on whether a year-round calendar would be continued and who would be transferred if authorities revert to a traditional nine-month calendar.

All of the parents’ comments from the two meetings will be considered by the district’s Board of Trustees when it votes on a final plan Jan. 24, McGrath said.

If parents accept whatever changes occur gracefully, their children probably will too, Laurino said. She said children left alone “will make friends with just about anybody.”

“I don’t care about the ethnic balance,” she added. “I care about the attitude balance.”