Las Palmas Students Get 6th-Grade Option

Students at Las Palmas Elementary School will have the option of remaining there for sixth grade, an exception made to allow those children in the two-way language immersion program to complete their K-6 studies.

At Monday’s board meeting, Capistrano Unified School District trustees altered school attendance boundaries, converting all but three of the district’s elementary schools into a K-5 configuration.

The decision makes additional space available for class-size reduction and to accommodate the district’s annual 7% growth rate. Barcelona Hills and Richard Henry Dana elementary schools will also remain in the K-6 program because of low enrollment.

Las Palmas parents whose children enrolled in the district’s only two-way language immersion program five years ago requested that their children be allowed to complete the seven-year program, which is designed to teach English- and Spanish-speaking students.

Trustees had earlier raised concerns about students losing the benefits of attending middle school.