New Boundaries for 4 Schools Proposed

In an effort to improve the ethnic mix of Moorpark schools, children from about five blocks of the city’s downtown area could attend a different elementary school this fall under a proposal being studied by school district officials.

Officials released maps Friday showing possible new boundaries for four Moorpark elementary schools. Students living in a rectangle of downtown streets--roughly, the area bounded by Moorpark Avenue on the west, Spring Road on the east, 2nd Street on the south and the railroad tracks on the north--would be switched from Peach Hill School to Mountain Meadows School.

Most children in the affected area are Latino. Moving them would improve the ethnic balance at both schools, district officials say.

“We definitely want to have our schools be representative of our community as a whole,” school board member David Pollock said.

Board members, who discussed the proposal Tuesday and are scheduled to vote on it April 22, cautioned Friday that the new boundary lines are tentative and still subject to change. Nor is it certain that the board will approve redrawing the lines any time soon.

Pollock said the district should wait another year until the planned Casey Road elementary school opens. According to another map released Friday, the new school would draw many of the children who currently go to Mountain Meadows, thereby freeing space at that school for more children from downtown.

The new school’s proposed boundaries would cover Moorpark’s northwest corner. The boundary line would follow the Arroyo Simi from the city’s western edge to just east of Maureen Lane, travel north to the railroad tracks, follow the tracks east to Spring Road and then go north again.

Board member Clint Harper also said the district might be better off waiting until the new school opens so that all the necessary boundary changes can be made at once. And he wants to make sure that if changes are approved this year, none of the children switched to Mountain Meadows would go to the Casey Road school next year.