ORANGE : Trustees to Examine Crowding, Bus Service

Trustees will tackle two of the most pressing and sensitive issues facing the Orange Unified School District tonight--crowding and transportation.

They scheduled the workshop to consider enrollment changes that include transferring whole sixth-grade classes to other schools as soon as the 1995-96 school year. They also will discuss a critical transportation study from a consultant, who said she found drivers with inadequate training steering buses that are badly outdated under a management structure described as “unusual,” “peculiar” and “inadequate.”

Administrators have warned trustees for months that both issues have been festering for years and now demand immediate action.

A large subcommittee of parents, teachers, and administrators produced a plan to cope with crowding that calls for installation of portable classrooms at several sites this year and more substantial solutions by 2000.

Chief Fiscal Officer Joyce Capelle told trustees last week that the committee recommended moving sixth-grade classes from Imperial to Crescent Elementary, and from Fairhaven and West Orange elementary schools to Portola Junior High. The students would change over in the 1995-96 school year.

The first of a series of public hearings is set March 28, but School Board President Maureen Aschoff said she wanted families to be involved sooner and urged them to attend tonight’s workshop.

The district’s fleet of more than 60 buses also is due for some drastic action, according to Virginia Barnes, who last week delivered an exhaustive study to the Board of Education.

“It is apparent that Orange Unified School District has not placed adequate attention and resources on pupil transportation and vehicle maintenance for at least 10 years,” her reportsaid.

The district can opt to contract out for that service, but that would not compensate for past damage, she said.

The workshop begins at 7 p.m. at district headquarters at 1401 N. Handy St. in Orange.