BREA : School Boundary Changes Opposed

Kimberly Redman, a fourth-grader at Arovista Elementary School, does not want to be transferred to another school next year, and this week she told her school board just that.

“I’ve learned a lot at Arovista School the past years I’ve been here and I’ve been looking forward to graduating at Arovista in sixth grade,” the 10-year-old girl told the Brea-Olinda Unified School District Board of Education. “My bubble will burst if I have to leave Arovista.”

School board members are considering forcing about 100 students, who are currently attending the overcrowded Arovista and Mariposa elementary schools, to attend schools with smaller student populations come September.

Under the proposed boundary changes, the students who would be transferred do not live in the attendance areas for Mariposa and Arovista, school officials said. Some live outside Brea.

If the board approves the proposal, the students who do not live in the city will be transferred to Laurel, Fanning, Country Hills and Olinda elementary schools, which are not overcrowded. Students who are residents of the city and are going to Arovista or Mariposa will be sent to their neighborhood schools.

Currently, 690 students attend Arovista and 615 attend Mariposa. The maximum recommended numbers are 650 at Arovista and 600 at Mariposa. School officials said they expect the two schools’ student population to grow in the next few years because of housing projects being developed in their neighborhoods.

About 25 parents spoke against the proposed boundary changes at Monday’s school board meeting, saying their children would be devastated if they had to enroll at other schools. None mentioned the concerns that were brought up at the first public hearing last month, when parents complained that they did not want their children to have to go to Laurel, where half the students are Latino.

In the past, administrators and community members have charged that parents who refuse to send their children to Laurel are racist. Parents have denied the accusations, saying they are merely concerned with their children’s safety and quality of education.

Other parents asked trustees to consider making exceptions for their children so they can graduate from the schools they are currently attending.

Christine Cannon, an Anaheim resident whose son attends Arovista, pleaded with the board to allow her son to stay there because she will move to Arovista’s attendance area in December. “It would just be a crime to move him and then move him back again,” she said. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Board members will conduct a study session May 9 to consider public testimony and letters written to the district about the proposed boundary changes. A decision is expected sometime before June, officials said.