Moorpark Trustees Delay Redrawing Boundaries

MOORPARK —  Daunted by the cost and complexity of changing the attendance boundaries among Moorpark’s elementary schools, the school board voted Tuesday to wait a year before moving any students.

The vote came after school district trustees pored over maps that showed four different options for redrawing the boundaries among schools, a change designed to improve the ethnic balance at several campuses.

Each option switched from school to school groups of children--some from the mostly Latino neighborhood of downtown Moorpark, some from the largely white Mountain Meadows area.

Since many Moorpark schools are already crowded, some of the proposed changes would have forced the district to buy or lease portable classrooms, racking up costs that could range from $281,344 to $490,000. In addition, the cost of transporting students to their newly assigned schools could cost more than $250,000 extra.

Those prices were too steep for the trustees. They chose to delay any changes until the district’s planned elementary school on Casey Road opens next year. The new school, which trustees Tuesday night named Walnut Canyon School, will ease crowding at other campuses and eliminate the need for more portable rooms.

Trustee Greg Barker pointed out that the opening of the Casey Road school will force the district to change attendance boundaries next year anyway.

“Why are we doing this now . . . when we can do it all in one fell swoop?” he asked before the meeting.

Rather than wait to design new boundary maps, however, trustees directed district officials to start working on attendance boundaries soon and, hopefully, devise a plan by Christmas.

The idea of changing boundaries this year grew out of what district officials consider a lopsided ethnic balance at Peach Hill and Mountain Meadows elementary schools. Peach Hill’s student body contains about 47% Latinos, Mountain Meadows’ 22.5%.

To even out the mix, officials proposed moving youngsters from about five blocks of downtown Moorpark from Peach Hill to Mountain Meadows.

But when the board considered the proposed change last month, trustees split over whether to proceed or wait a year. Several said they wanted more information on the costs involved.

And Trustee Gary Cabriales said he wanted to review options for moving different groups of children, not just the Latino kids from downtown.

“There are other ways to skin that cat,” he said Tuesday.

Working with Cabriales, the district staff drew up three additional ways to rearrange the boundaries. Instead of focusing solely on downtown Moorpark, the latest plans also included moving children from the more affluent Mountain Meadows neighborhood.

Several trustees complained that even the new boundaries would leave ethnic imbalances between the city’s schools.

“None of these plans balances the population,” Trustee Clint Harper said. “We’re creating new problems.”