School Trustees May Redraw Attendance Boundaries

School officials will consider ways to redraw the district’s attendance boundaries so the size and ethnicity of a school’s student population is balanced at the elementary and middle school campuses.

The Moorpark Unified School District has scheduled a study session at 6 tonight at its headquarters, 30 Flory St. Trustees plan to examine where students from kindergarten through eighth grade will attend school next fall. The Moorpark district has more than 7,100 students, of which about 5,300 are in those grades.

In addition to making sure that one campus isn’t overcrowded and another underused, district officials said they want each campus to reflect the community’s diversity as closely as possible.

Although school trustees have discussed school boundaries previously, they postponed earlier study sessions so they could bring up the issue closer to the opening of Walnut Canyon Elementary School.

Walnut Canyon, being build on Casey Road where the district’s original high school was located, is scheduled to open to students in September.

Although district officials plan to draw boundaries for the school, it probably will become a “school of choice,” meaning parents throughout the city could send their children to Walnut Canyon even if they live outside the attendance boundary.

During tonight’s meeting, district officials will also consider how to minimize the distance that students must travel to get to their school and how to avoid making students cross busy intersections or railroad tracks to get to campus.