Trustees Vote Again to Make Lang School K-5

Conejo Valley school trustees settled a long-running issue Tuesday by voting--for a second time--to limit enrollment at their newest elementary school to students through the fifth grade.

This step allows the new Lang Ranch Elementary School to serve a larger number of families in surrounding neighborhoods than would have been possible by serving sixth-graders as well.

Dissenting in the vote was trustee Elaine McKearn, who opposed forcing sixth-graders in the Lang Ranch attendance area to attend middle school. Sixth-graders elsewhere in the district may choose between elementary and middle school.

Many who jammed the Conejo Valley Unified School District meeting--parents who want their kids to walk to the new school on Landhurst Avenue--cheered the decision. Of those on hand, about 40 favored the vote and 15 were opposed.

“In California, we have to make compromises because there is not enough money to build elementary schools in every neighborhood,” said Peggy Buckles, a PTA council activist. “Compromise has to happen.”

“I grew up in an old-fashioned atmosphere where we walked to school,” said Selene Carr, whose 4-year-old son Geoffrey will be able to ride his bike alongside her as she walks him next year to Lang Ranch Elementary when he starts kindergarten.

Of those opposed, one resident said sixth-graders need stability and are better served by remaining in elementary school.

“Do not use our children as guinea pigs of the district,” said Connie Spykerman, urging a K-through-6 configuration.

A small handful of homeowners objected to the decision on the grounds that the proposed boundaries would cause more traffic in their neighborhood. In response, supporters of the plan said they expect most children to walk.

The issue began as a question of how to draw attendance boundaries for the new school.

Late last year, many parents from surrounding neighborhoods objected that their children were excluded from the new school while room was set aside for future residents of the Woodridge development, planned for a site northeast of the school.

To accommodate as many families as possible, trustees on Dec. 9 voted to exclude sixth graders from the new school.

But because the public was not informed by the board’s agenda that such an action could be taken, some residents complained that trustees violated the state’s open-meeting law.

The board scheduled Tuesday’s action to avoid a conflict with the law. They voted first to rescind the earlier decision on grade levels, second to reinstate that vote and third to formally set the attendance boundaries.

The lines follow Sunset Hills Boulevard on the north, Erbes Road on the west, Avenida de Los Arboles on the south and the city limits on the east.

“We’re redoing this to make sure everything is considered legal,” said board president Dolores Didio.