PARENTS DIVIDED OVER NEW SCHOOL BOUNDARIES.

Byline: - Cecilia Chan

Las Virgenes Unified trustees are expected tonight to decide the grade configuration and attendance boundaries for the middle-school opening next fall at Mulholland Highway and Paul Review Drive.

Some parents want the new $21.2 million campus - which will alleviate overcrowding at A.E. Wright Middle School - to serve only sixth- and seventh-graders, while others also want to include eighth-graders.

``Several parents have come forward and do not want their children moved and want the eighth grade to stay at A.E. Wright,'' said Donald Zimring, deputy superintendent of the school district.

Parents object to having their eighth-graders change schools twice in two years - transferring first to the new middle school, then matriculating to Calabasas High School.

Other parents, such as Shirley Brown, want the first year of the middle school to include grades six through eight.

``If the eighth grade didn't move over, then the sixth and seventh grades wouldn't get the funding necessary for all of the extra things they could be doing, like music, art and electives,'' said Brown, whose daughter will be a seventh-grader at the new campus. ``Everyone would suffer should the eighth grade not move over.''

Traditionally, secondary schools open to only the lower grades during their first year, so students in the upper grade can graduate from their home campus.

Mary Sistrunk, principal of the new school, has looked at the issue and pointed out problems for delaying the transfer of the eighth grade.

She said seventh-grade teachers generally also teach eighth grade so more teachers would need to be hired to serve the disproportionate number of eighth-graders remaining at A.E. Wright. And, Sistrunk said, ``significant transportation and child-care issues'' could result for parents who have an eighth-grader at A.E. Wright and younger children at the new campus.

Students who want to remain at A.E. Wright for eighth grade could apply under open enrollment, staffers said.

Trustees also will consider a recommendation that the attendance boundary include students who attend Chaparral and Bay Laurel Elementary schools in Calabasas, and also those live in West Hills and Bell Canyon and attend Round Meadow Elementary School.

The yet-to-be named campus has faced numerous hurdles during its inception, including parents who opposed using the 31-acre site because of traffic and geological concerns and a lawsuit from the former owners of the Hellman property.

Zimring said the lawsuit was settled last year, with the district paying $3.4 million to the owners who claimed they should have received $5.75 million, not the $1.25 million the district paid when it took the land by eminent domain.

A.E. Wright Middle School is more than 60 percent over capacity, Zimring said. If the board decides to include the eighth-grade class in the opening year, the campus will have 800 students. The capacity of the school is 1,000 students.

IF YOU GO

The Las Virgenes Unified School District board will meet at 6 tonight at 4111 N. Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas.

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IF YOU GO (see text)