Forum to Focus on School Crowding

Parents concerned about school crowding can attend a forum today on possible solutions, including changing school boundaries, reopening schools and adding portable classrooms.

Beginning at 4:30 p.m., Sean Corrigan, director of planning and facilities for the Conejo Valley Unified School District, will hold an hourlong study session in the school board room on Janss Road to discuss the district’s options, which also include implementing a multitrack, year-round school schedule.

Corrigan also will brief the public and the school board--which is holding this session before its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.--on the attendance boundaries for Lang Ranch Elementary School, which is expected to be completed by next fall.

Corrigan will outline a map on households where parents are geographically eligible to send their children to the new school. About 600 students will be able to attend, he said. Corrigan also will discuss how the attendance boundary lines may be adjusted for Madrona School in central Thousand Oaks, with some of the elementary students likely to be bumped to nearby Aspen School.

As it stands now, the district will probably abandon plans to force all sixth-graders into middle schools, Corrigan said. Since the district did not get as much state money as anticipated for class-size reduction, the district can continue its system of allowing sixth-graders the choice between elementary and middle school, officials said.

After the afternoon session, Corrigan will draw up plans to present for the board’s Nov. 20 meeting. The board is expected to vote on the attendance boundary lines next month.