Deciding attendance area for new school won't be easy

Establishing the attendance area for Yorba Linda High School is one of the most challenging tasks now facing officials of the Placentia-Yorba Linda school district.

The new YLHS boundary lines will affect enrollments at the district’s three current comprehensive high schools, now home to 3,830 Yorba Linda students, including 2,451 at Esperanza, 1,073 at El Dorado and 306 at Valencia.

Clearly, not all students with a Yorba Linda address will attend the new north Fairmont Boulevard campus, scheduled to open Fall 2008 to freshmen and sophomores.

Adding to the challenge is a district projection showing comprehensive high school enrollment peaking at 8,136 the year before YLHS opens and declining to 7,367 five years later.

The projection does not take into account possible impacts from Friends Christian High School--scheduled to open Fall 2007--or the district’s “open enrollment” program, which is expected to draw an increasing number of transfer students from surrounding districts.

A timeline listing five “open house” dates this month to gather community input has been discarded, according to Doug Domene, the district’s director of executive services.

Domene, a former assistant principal at Esperanza High School, says the process will begin in November or December with the formation of a 20- to 30-member Community Advisory Team, which will include school personnel and parents from all high schools.

The community open houses will be held after the Advisory Team begins examining demographic data, with a final recommendation going to trustees by March 2007. A principal for the new campus probably will be selected after the boundaries are drawn.

Key to the boundary adjustment process is developing optimal enrollments for each of the four comprehensive high schools. The district’s goal is to have all campuses in the 1,800 to 2,200-student range, which, according to Domene, is achievable.

Generally, public high schools in the smaller 1,500-student range find it more difficult to offer a broad spectrum of arts, technology, Advanced Placement and honors classes.

And students at small schools can be conflicted out of some classes they want to take, unless class enrollment figures justify offering more than one section of the courses.

However, Domene says the district is committed to providing equitable programs at all campuses, whatever their sizes might turn out to be in future years. He says there are ways to provide specialized programs at schools that have lower enrollment numbers.

Meanwhile, Domene and other district officials are examining more than 15 scenarios for high school attendance areas that were created by a district-hired demographic company.

A FINAL NOTE--School officials are wise to delay the drawing of new boundary lines until after the November election for two positions on the five-member board of trustees.

Seats held by fourth-term trustee Karin Freeman and second-term trustee Jan Wagner, both Yorba Linda residents, will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot, unless they are unopposed, as occurred with trustees Carol Downey, Judy Miner and Craig Olson in 2000 and 2004.

Creating one new and revising three other high school attendance areas could be a highly contentious process. And it might be best accomplished in a non-politicized environment.