CALABASAS : Meadow Oaks School Remains Open for Fall

As Mark Twain might have put it: reports of the demise of Meadow Oaks School in Calabasas have been greatly exaggerated.

The school is open and registering students for the fall term, despite its failed attempt earlier this year to merge with neighboring Viewpoint School, said Dennis Fliegelman, interim administrator for the school.

Many parents mistakenly believe that Meadow Oaks School, a private school that serves kindergarten through eighth grades, closed after the failed merger, said one parent.

“There are a lot of people in the Valley who aren’t even aware of the fact that Meadow Oaks is still around,” said Rick Firestone of Granada Hills, who has three children at the school.

Parents were surprised last February when the school announced its planned merger with Viewpoint School, another private institution next door on Mulholland Highway.

Meadow Oaks parents had to scramble to find new schools for their children in time for the fall. Surprise turned to anger after the schools announced six weeks later that the deal had fallen through for reasons the schools refused to disclose.

Fliegelman said enrollments are down over last year. Meadow Oaks, which had 560 students last year, he said, expects to enroll about 270 this year. The situation is not as bad as it sounds, he said, when taken into account that many students are lost annually through graduation and attrition.

Also, Fliegelman said, parents of about 30 children have moved, while 15 to 20 students would not have been accepted back because of their low grades.

Meanwhile, school officials have been working to persuade some of the parents to bring their children back, he said.

“Some are still irate,” Fliegelman said, while others already have their children enrolled in other schools, and “don’t want to go through the trauma again.”

Firestone said he and other parents he has talked to plan to become more active in school affairs. “We want to talk about all the positive things we’re trying to do, like improving the athletics program,” he said. “The potential of this school is limitless.”