Board to Hear From Moiola School Parents

Parents of Fred Moiola Elementary School students will have their say tonight on whether the campus should retain its unusual but popular K-8 configuration.

The Fountain Valley School District Board of Education plans to continue reviewing a study on whether to eliminate the school’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes and start sending students to middle schools as early as September. A second option would convert Moiola to a magnet school.

Included in the presentation is a survey of parents that found a majority want no changes to Moiola.

Debate over the proposal is fierce. Parents, students and alumni crowd school board meetings and meet regularly to plan opposition. Overcrowding at a November meeting forced the Fire Department to shut the meeting down for safety reasons. Another meeting was held in a school auditorium to accommodate masses of supporters of keeping Moiola K-8.

School board members have not made a final decision on the matter and want to continue reviewing studies and gathering input tonight. A vote is expected on Feb. 27.

Only 156 of the school district’s 2,000 middle school-age students attend Moiola. K-8 schools were the norm districtwide until the early 1980s, when trustees chose to create middle schools.

Moiola is the last K-8 holdout in the city and one of a few countywide.

Information gathered by the district shows benefits of retaining upper grades at Moiola and in sending the students to middle schools.

Middle schools offer a more diverse range of electives, more teachers and a setting that eases the transition to high school, according to the report.

Still, Moiola boasts more personalized attention, a relationship with younger students and a convenient Finch Avenue location.

If the district changes formats upper-graders from Moiola will transfer to one of three middle schools in the city.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 7:30 at school district headquarters, 17210 Oak St.