BOUNDARY CHANGES MAY COME; SCHOOL ENROLLMENT SPIKES.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

The last time the dreaded boundary change process came up in the Simi Valley Unified School District was in 1996, when the district created a magnet high school out of Sequoia Middle School.

Before that, in 1992, the board considered proposals to take a look at boundaries each year to make small changes to handle enrollment fluctuation.

But neither of those resulted in displaced students. The middle school became a high school without having to send students away, and the district never altered attendance lines as a result of its boundary reviews.

So the district has not significantly redrawn the lines around a school - often a difficult and emotional process - since the early 1980s when it decided to close four elementary schools because of declining enrollment.

Now, with recent enrollment spikes and a looming enrollment leap forecast for coming years, the district is facing the prospect of moving students to other schools.

``Our intent is to have this happen one time, and certainly not seeing something where we're affecting boundaries every few years,'' said board President Janice DiFatta. ``It's important then that we do this right.''

The district is planning to reopen Arroyo Elementary School on the west side of town next fall, and while boundary changes are not guaranteed, school officials and parents believe they are a definite possibility.

On Tuesday, the school board will discuss establishing a district boundary committee to draw community involvement in the decision-making process.

School board member Carla Kurachi said altering boundaries is an emotional and difficult process because it involves taking children out of schools they have been attending.

Changing attendance boundaries means altering longtime borders around schools, leaving families who expected their children would attend one school with the prospect of attendance at a different campus.

``You have to solicit input,'' said Kurachi, who voted against opening Arroyo next fall. ``And the best way to get that is probably (to ask) representation from schools being affected, because that way the person can go back to the people in the school site and keep them informed.''

At the meeting, the board will consider whether to establish the committee, what the group will be asked to study and who should be invited to join.

Parents at Wood Ranch Elementary School, the district's newest campus, but also one of the most overcrowded, have already organized themselves to voice their opinions about potential changes.

They are planning to distribute a survey to all Wood Ranch residents to collect opinions on how the community wants the board to handle the enrollment crush at their brand-new school.

But parents at Madera, Abraham Lincoln and Park View schools - which also could be effected by boundary changes - are just now starting to hear rumblings of discontent and worry.

Erin Donalson, who has two children at Madera, said she is concerned that since the family lives far south of the campus her children might fall into a new attendance area.

``The two other schools nearby, Wood Ranch and Lincoln, don't make any sense for my kids, and yet, since we're not right on top of Madera, you have to wonder,'' she said. ``And it will be difficult for any of the children (in Wood Ranch) to have to leave, no matter where they decide they should go.''

The possible need for boundary changes became evident a few months ago when the district's Facilities Needs Master Plan committee outlined the number of classrooms that would be needed if enrollment grows as expected.

The district projects a 28.6 percent increase in kindergarten through sixth-grade enrollment by the 2008-09 school year, a 40.99 percent rise in grades 7 and 8, and a 40.38 percent leap in high school enrollment by that time.

The report said the system, depending on grade configuration, would need 83 to 154 more classes at the elementary school level, and from 18 to 91 more classes at the middle school level. No matter the configuration, the district will need 64 more high school classes.

In September, the board decided one way to handle the growth in the short term, on the west side, was to open Arroyo, which was closed in 1983. Any decision on boundary changes to accommodate that school would have to be done by February, officials have said.

DiFatta said decisions for a long-term plan would have to be done after the board determines what grade configurations - the grade levels to be housed at each campus - will be used in the future.

For example, if the board decides to keep the status quo, allowing parents to choose whether to send their sixth-graders to middle school or keep them in elementary school, that opens up one set of possibilities. But if the board decides to mandate sixth-grade attendance at either school type, the district would have to respond differently, she explained.

School officials said that as they gear up for the process, the best chance there is to keep the changes from generating ill will among parents would be to keep the lines of communication open.

``We have to be sure it is clear and folks at the sites are aware that the decision is being made not only with the best interests of the people at that site, but also with the interests of those around the site being taken into account,'' DiFatta said. ``Hopefully, that will bring a lot of people around in the long run.''