Another Plan in the Works to Unify Fountain Valley Schools

Fountain Valley school trustees are eyeing two high schools within their city limits that now belong to a neighboring school district, in hopes of annexing them so that students can graduate from the local district.

If the Fountain Valley School District succeeds in a bid to annex Fountain Valley and Valley Vista high schools and their attendance areas from the Huntington Beach Union High School District, it would be Orange County’s first school district unification since the Los Alamitos district took high schools from Anaheim Union High School District 20 years ago.

“This has been an interest in Fountain Valley for quite some time,” Fountain Valley Schools Supt. Marc Ecker said of the annexation plan to be considered by trustees tonight. “It’s a long process and not necessarily an easy process, but there seems to be a tremendous amount of energy behind it.”

First, however, Fountain Valley officials must persuade Huntington Beach Union district trustees to let go of the comprehensive high school and continuation school. Then voters must approve the plan.

Most parents within the Fountain Valley district favor the idea, according to the district’s preliminary surveys. But 70% of the city’s voters don’t have children, and approval from a substantial number of them would be required for annexation.

The board also must explain to Fountain Valley parents whose children attend schools in the Ocean View Elementary and Garden Grove Unified school districts why their kids won’t be part of the new plan.

Fountain Valley Not Alone in Circumstances

The dilemma for Fountain Valley can be traced to school district lines that predate the incorporation of many local cities. Garden Grove Unified School District, for example, operates schools not only in Garden Grove, but in Westminster, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley and Stanton. The Fountain Valley district includes parts of Huntington Beach.

In many communities, parents and students make do with the

sometimes confusing situation, but last fall Fountain Valley parents and school board members decided they had had enough.

Changing school districts after eighth grade is hurting children, many parents say, because the students must adapt to a new curriculum and a complicated new system while they are trying to adapt to the first year of high school.

The issue also involves money. Unified districts get more money per pupil than other districts, Ecker said. And while Fountain Valley High School needs substantial renovations, the district overall still would benefit financially from an annexation, he said. “I see total advantages to it,” said Cindy Kraus, a Fountain Valley parent. “I think more local control is better.”

But school board members in Huntington Beach worry that losing the two high schools and the students they serve could have financial repercussions for the rest of the high school district.

“You can’t take a piece out and not have an impact on the entire constellation,” said Michael Simons, a Huntington Beach board member.

Only residents living within the boundaries of the Fountain Valley School District would vote in a unification election, but because the district includes parts of Huntington Beach, opposition from those residents could sink the plan.

Fountain Valley residents have tried twice before to unify their district. Those efforts, in the 1960s and again in 1976, failed. In the 1976 vote, the district tried to set school boundaries to conform to the city limits, which meant annexing schools from three districts--Huntington Beach Union, Ocean View and Garden Grove.

A financial study of the proposal must be completed before the board decides whether to proceed. The county and state must approve the plan before an election could be held, probably sometime in 2003.

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Contemplating Annexation

Without a high school of their own within their boundary, Fountain Valley School District trustees are seeking to annex a pair of secondary schools from neighboring Huntington Beach Union High School District.

Annexation Target: Fountain Valley H.S.

Annexation Target: Valley Vista Continuation H.S.

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Source: Fountain Valley School District