School District Boundaries May Change

An increasing number of students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District may force changes in attendance boundaries as early as September, officials said this week, despite earlier assurances to parents that revisions could wait until the 1996-97 school year.

In the Estancia High School zone in Costa Mesa, the challenge is to preserve “neighborhood schools” at each of the five elementary schools--Adams, California, Pomona, Victoria and Wilson--while trying to attain “ethnic balance,” board members said at Tuesday’s meeting.

The zone’s population is 61% Latino, but the ethnicity of the student population varies widely from school to school. Adams, for example, is 52% Latino and uses only 56% of its capacity. Victoria, which is 39% Latino, expects twice as many students this fall as it is designed to accommodate.

The board is seeking a way to maintain ethnic diversity while setting boundaries so that most children can walk to school, but parents and teachers say that constantly moving the boundaries is disruptive.

Phyllis Pipes, a teacher at Wilson Elementary School, told the board that attendance boundaries for her school have been changed in each of the past five years. One student Pipes knows has been forced to switch schools each of those years, she said, even though he has lived in the same place.

“We think it’s about time this school is left alone for a while to educate children,” she said.