District starts drawing boundaries
A 10-month-long process to establish attendance boundaries for the new Yorba Linda High School is now underway, according to a timeline developed by Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District officials.
The task began this month with gathering demographic data and enrollment projections and ends February 2009 with a decision by the district’s elected trustees.
The 65-acre campus, now under construction at Bastanchury Road and Fairmont Boulevard, is scheduled to open to 9th and 10th grade students September 2009.
Three teams with school, city and parent representatives will review options and make recommendations to Superintendent Dennis Smith, who will present a final plan to the five-member board of trustees.
Currently, 3,878 Yorba Linda students attend the district’s three full-service high schools, 2,498 out of 3,334 students at Esperanza, 1,066 out of 2,652 at El Dorado and 314 out of 2,506 at Valencia.
According to a policy now in place, “Every effort will be made to establish contiguous boundaries and desirable school size,” which officials say is 1,600 to 2,000 students at each high school.
Among seven other criteria are using major traffic thoroughfares and natural barriers as boundaries, incorporating entire elementary and middle school attendance areas in high school boundaries and complying with state and federal regulations regarding the racial or ethnic composition of attendance areas.
Working on recommendations are a core team of district administrators; a resource team of middle and high school principals and Placentia and Yorba Linda city staff personnel; and an advisory team with a parent from each middle and high school and representatives from the superintendent’s community and teacher advisory councils.
The recommendations will be presented to the public in community forums scheduled in November. The teams will review input from the forums before passing a plan to Smith in December or January 2009.
Meanwhile, an election for three trustees is scheduled Nov. 4, including a seat to be held for five months by an appointed replacement for fourth-term trustee Craig Olson, whose resignation is effective June 25.
Seats held by fifth-term trustee July Miller and second-term trustee Carol Downey also are on the ballot. Karin Freeman’s fifth and Jan Wagner’s third terms run through 2010.
A FINAL NOTE
The 1,088-home La Floresta development on the former Unocal site north of Imperial Highway and west of Rose Drive straddles the Placentia-Yorba Linda and Brea-Olinda unified school districts.
Developers want to merge the 54 Placentia-Yorba Linda district acres with the 65 Brea-Olinda district acres, so all of the children in the project will attend BOUSD schools.
But PYLUSD officials are opposed, saying the proposed transfer doesn’t meet nine conditions outlined in the state Education Code. The Orange County Committee on School District Organization will hear the matter June 4.
The task began this month with gathering demographic data and enrollment projections and ends February 2009 with a decision by the district’s elected trustees.
The 65-acre campus, now under construction at Bastanchury Road and Fairmont Boulevard, is scheduled to open to 9th and 10th grade students September 2009.
Three teams with school, city and parent representatives will review options and make recommendations to Superintendent Dennis Smith, who will present a final plan to the five-member board of trustees.
Currently, 3,878 Yorba Linda students attend the district’s three full-service high schools, 2,498 out of 3,334 students at Esperanza, 1,066 out of 2,652 at El Dorado and 314 out of 2,506 at Valencia.
According to a policy now in place, “Every effort will be made to establish contiguous boundaries and desirable school size,” which officials say is 1,600 to 2,000 students at each high school.
Among seven other criteria are using major traffic thoroughfares and natural barriers as boundaries, incorporating entire elementary and middle school attendance areas in high school boundaries and complying with state and federal regulations regarding the racial or ethnic composition of attendance areas.
Working on recommendations are a core team of district administrators; a resource team of middle and high school principals and Placentia and Yorba Linda city staff personnel; and an advisory team with a parent from each middle and high school and representatives from the superintendent’s community and teacher advisory councils.
The recommendations will be presented to the public in community forums scheduled in November. The teams will review input from the forums before passing a plan to Smith in December or January 2009.
Meanwhile, an election for three trustees is scheduled Nov. 4, including a seat to be held for five months by an appointed replacement for fourth-term trustee Craig Olson, whose resignation is effective June 25.
Seats held by fifth-term trustee July Miller and second-term trustee Carol Downey also are on the ballot. Karin Freeman’s fifth and Jan Wagner’s third terms run through 2010.
A FINAL NOTE
The 1,088-home La Floresta development on the former Unocal site north of Imperial Highway and west of Rose Drive straddles the Placentia-Yorba Linda and Brea-Olinda unified school districts.
Developers want to merge the 54 Placentia-Yorba Linda district acres with the 65 Brea-Olinda district acres, so all of the children in the project will attend BOUSD schools.
But PYLUSD officials are opposed, saying the proposed transfer doesn’t meet nine conditions outlined in the state Education Code. The Orange County Committee on School District Organization will hear the matter June 4.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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