SEAL BEACH : Students Can Pick Between 2 Schools

Students from two affluent Seal Beach neighborhoods will be allowed to choose which of the two middle schools in the Los Alamitos Unified School District they will attend in the fall.

Under revised attendance boundaries approved unanimously Monday by trustees, nearly 300 students from Marina Hill and Old Town Seal Beach will be able to enroll either at McAuliffe or Oak Middle School.

Students from Rossmoor Highlands and areas west of Bloomfield Street and south of Cerritos Avenue will attend Oak, which is reopening in September after having been closed since 1986.

For all other students, the attendance boundary will be Seal Beach-Los Alamitos Boulevard. Students living west of the boulevard will go to Oak, and those to the east will attend McAuliffe.

Parents may request intra-district transfers, which would be limited by available space.

School board President Donna Artukovic called the boundary decision risky.

“It’s a test,” she said before another packed board meeting at McGaugh Elementary School. “We’ll see how it works.” She added that the boundaries could be changed again next year.

A nine-member panel of parents, trustees and district administrators recommended the new boundaries because of vigorous protests from some parents against designating Seal Beach-Los Alamitos Boulevard as the districtwide boundary for the two schools.

Some parents who opposed the plan welcomed the compromise adopted Monday.

Some parents remained unhappy. They said giving students from Marina Hill and Old Town Seal Beach a choice is unfair.

But district officials said the two schools will offer the same basic curriculum and similar programs, and they expect some students from Marina Hill and Old Town Seal Beach will attend McAuliffe.