SIMI VALLEY : Middle School Plan to Be Discussed

The Simi Valley school board will discuss at its meeting tonight a controversial plan to reconfigure the district, two weeks before the swearing-in of a new board member who has opposed the plan and apparently holds the vote needed to kill it.

Supt. Robert Purvis said Monday that the board will hear a status report on the plan to switch to a middle school system, even though the plan slated to go into effect next fall may be rejected by the new board before then. “The current board has approved it, but we’re going to have a new board on Dec. 15, and there are some indications that a new board will not approve it,” Purvis said.

The recent election of Debbie Sandland to the school board has raised doubts about whether the reorganization will go forward. Sandland, who campaigned against the plan because she said it was unnecessary and too costly, collected more than 20,000 votes last month to win election to the board. She is replacing Kenneth Ashton, who is retiring.

Ashton and fellow board members Doug Crosse and Judy Barry voted in favor of the middle school plan last year and scheduled implementation in the 1993-94 school year.

Under the proposed system, elementary schools would be rearranged to include kindergarten through fifth grades, middle schools sixth through eighth, and high schools 9th through 12th. Purvis said the plan will go forward unless the new board decides to scrap it.

It is estimated that it will cost the district $600,000 to implement the new configuration and at least another $250,000 a year in ongoing expenses.

Sandland, who assumes her new position on Dec. 15, said she will speak before the board tonight to restate her views against the plan.

The board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.