Parents Vow to Fight Redistricting Plan

Angry parents vowed Saturday to continue fighting a school board decision that would ease overcrowding by busing 185 incoming freshmen and sophomores across town from their east Ventura neighborhoods to Ventura High School.

At the meeting at an east Ventura park, about 75 parents and students discussed options that ranged from petitioning Gov. Pete Wilson directly to becoming regular--and vocal--fixtures at meetings of the Ventura Unified School District Board of Trustees.

“You need to just drown them out,” said Ellen Silverman, whose two daughters, one an incoming freshman at Buena High School, the other a sophomore, will be separated under the redistricting plan the board approved last week. “Even if it means we stay there until midnight.”

Neighborhoods affected by redistricting are the hillside communities of Skyline, Clearpoint, Ondulando and Hidden Valley; residential tracts between Foothill and Telegraph roads bounded by Tyler and Petit avenues, and a neighborhood south of Ventura College and east of Buenaventura Mall.

Several people at the meeting said they have consulted attorneys who told them they face an uphill battle. But the group still plans to hire an attorney to determine whether the board adhered to the open-meeting rules of the Brown Act when members reached their decision.

“The only way to beat the school board is to find out if they are breaking the law,” said Barbara Dean, whose son is one of the 90 freshmen at Buena this year who will be sent to Ventura High next year. “I don’t think he should have to go through another year being the new kid.”