Changes at Capo Unified Backed

Four civil rights groups filed a legal motion Tuesday supporting the controversial redrawing of school boundaries in South County, arguing that considering the factor of race to avoid creating segregated schools benefits all students in the Capistrano Unified School District.

The motion argues on behalf of six parents in the district who “place a great value on their kids being able to go to integrated schools with diverse student bodies,” said Hector O. Villagra, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Orange County office.

The ACLU, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the motion in support of the school district, which in June was sued by a group of parents alleging that trustees redrew attendance boundaries solely to fulfill racial quotas, in violation of the state Constitution. No hearings are scheduled on the lawsuit.

The boundary shift apportions more than 14,000 high school students among five campuses and the new San Juan Hills High School. The move will affect thousands of students entering high school when the campus opens in 2006. The new boundaries angered many parents, particularly those in affluent beach communities and subdivisions that surround poorer, predominately Latino neighborhoods in the 50,000-student district.

The lawsuit alleges that attendance areas were shifted to ensure that minority enrollment in the district’s middle and high schools did not top 35%, an apparent violation of Proposition 209. That 1996 voter-approved measure forbids racial or gender preferences in state and local governments and universities.

Lawsuits invoking Proposition 209 have succeeded in eliminating affirmative action programs and other plans that give preference to minorities, including a case in Huntington Beach in which minority students were given school transfer rights not afforded to white students.

Districts have broad discretion in redrawing attendance boundaries. Capistrano Unified officials, who have acknowledged that race and ethnicity were among several factors considered when the boundaries were redrawn so the district could avoid creating segregated schools, have repeatedly said the boundary shifts are legal.