Officials Consider Reopening School and Redrawing Lines : Resurgent Simi Valley Straining Campus Boundaries

It upsets students, perturbs parents and disrupts families.

But changing school boundaries may soon be a fact of life for Simi Valley students who live in the city’s growing west end.

A series of events, including the 1993 bankruptcy of a developer that left Wood Ranch without a school that had been promised, a resurging economy and resulting plans for 400 new homes in the city’s southwest corner have left little elbow room in existing neighborhood schools.

Now, the Simi Valley Unified School District must decide whether to undertake the unpopular task of reassigning school boundaries. Inevitably, officials say, some students would be sent to new schools, and just as inevitably, some would be unhappy.

“It’s just not a fun thing,” said David M. Kanthak, assistant superintendent for business services for the district.

But it is a necessary thing, he added.

On Tuesday, the school board is scheduled to discuss staff recommendations to study redrawing district boundaries and reopening the now-closed Arroyo Elementary School for the fall of 1997.

“If we reopen Arroyo, it would result in a number of boundary changes,” Kanthak said. “So we’re looking at starting in the fall of 1997 so we can do it right.”

That would displace a girls’ softball league that now uses the grounds, as well as a preschool and other operations that lease the school for $110,000 per year.

The board will also discuss changes needed to relieve overcrowding at Madera School, where more than half the population are students from Wood Ranch. Possibilities include splitting the kindergartens into morning and afternoon classes, and moving a computer lab out of a classroom, which combined could make room for another 100 students.

The school may also add outdoor picnic tables to relieve some crowding in the cafeteria and renovate bathrooms to accommodate more students.

Some parents argued that Arroyo should be reopened sooner, or that at the very least, portable classrooms should be added to Madera in addition to the other changes.

“Right now, the dance teacher at Madera is out on the playground and the music teacher is traveling around to classrooms and using the cafeteria between lunches,” said PTA President Tricia Brown. “We would like an extra room for that.”

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Even without a new portable classroom, the changes proposed would take care of short-term overcrowding at Madera next year, Kanthak said. And by the time the new houses are built, Arroyo School would be reopened and ready for 500 more students, according to the staff plan.

Kanthak projects that it would cost about $823,000 to renovate the school, which was closed during the mid-’80s because of declining enrollment.

But school board member Carla Kurachi said the best long-term option for relieving the overcrowding in the city’s western end is not even being considered.

Instead, she said, Arcane Elementary farther east in the city should be reopened. That campus is in better shape, would cost less to renovate and, most importantly, would provide a permanent solution, she said.

Students could be reassigned to that school and others nearby so that they would not have to be shifted back to the west several years later when Wood Ranch Elementary opens and draws students away from Madera and Arroyo, she said.

“What are you going to do when Wood Ranch opens, turn around and close Arroyo again?” she asked. “Do you expose the children to a short-term solution and keep on traumatizing the people in that neighborhood?”

Arcane and Arroyo are two of the four elementary schools that were closed during years of lagging enrollment as the economy slowed in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. During those years, the district, which once had 25,000 students, dropped to the current enrollment of under 19,000.

Kurachi said the district should give notice now to Grace Brethren Church, which leases Arcane. The church’s lease requires the district give it two years notice before reclaiming the property. She said the district should also offer to pay moving expenses to hurry them out, adding that she will ask for a more thorough report at Tuesday’s meeting.

Kanthak said the two-year notification requirement would push the redistricting back too far, to the 1998-1999 school year.

Board President Judy Barry agreed that it would be a disservice to the students to close Arroyo again and send them to new schools when Wood Ranch opens. But, she said, the projections are that there will be enough growth in the city’s west end to support three schools.

“The west is where the growth is,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense to reopen a school in an area where there is no growth.”

Regardless, Kanthak said, Wood Ranch school is still years away from being ready to open and drawing students from other schools. Money to build the school would have to come from the sale of district-owned property at Wood Ranch known as Long Canyon. That 1,800-acre property was acquired in a settlement after the district sued the bankrupt developer for money to build the promised school.

“Wood Ranch school hinges entirely on selling the Long [Canyon] property,” he said.

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New Urban West, a Southern California builder, has purchased an option to buy the 1,800-acre property. But Urban West representatives have up to 18 months to decide whether they want to go through with the purchase, Kanthak said.

If they do, the sale is expected to provide enough money to build a 700-student elementary school, estimated to cost about $6 million.

“But it would probably be two or three years until we see any money,” Kanthak said. “And we can’t do anything until we see the money. We can’t even do architectural drawings because they are only good for a year.” It would take up to three additional years to build the school, he said.

Meanwhile, the district braces for the onslaught of criticism from families whose youngsters will potentially be moved.

“Nobody wants to change, but there’s really not much you can do,” Kanthak said. “It’s just something that has to be done when a school district starts to grow.”