1st Meeting Set to Discuss School Needs

Big changes to deal with anticipated enrollment growth in the Simi Valley Unified School District might not take place in time for the 1999-2000 school year, staff members say.

A committee of parents, school officials and community members is gearing up for its first meeting Wednesday to plan the district’s facilities needs for the next decade.

From that meeting should come a handful of short-term strategies to help the district cope with increasing student enrollment during the 1999-2000 school year.

The committee will work with a consulting firm, which will collect student enrollment projections and other data to be used to make decisions about the district’s future.

The results of the committee’s and consultants’ work are due at the end of this school year.

In recent months, some school officials have said short-term solutions might include opening one of four closed elementary schools or shifting school boundaries to ease classroom crowding.

However, Lowell Schultze, assistant superintendent of business services, said Wednesday that the district is not likely to open a closed school in the next several months because of time constraints, cost and the effect a new school would have on boundary issues.

“For us to say that we’re going to do something in the next month that will affect boundaries--I don’t think that’s realistic,” Schultze said.

That leaves school officials thinking of the 1999-2000 school year as an interim period when more portable classrooms might be used instead of tackling a more expensive and potentially controversial option.

The school board is expected to approve the last three of the committee’s 30-plus members at a Jan. 26 board meeting. In the meantime, the committee will begin its work Wednesday.

Any short-term recommendations are expected to come after a Feb. 3 meeting, Schultze said.