SECOND SCHOOL MAY CUT SIXTH GRADE; PARENTS, ADMINISTRATORS SUPPORT MEADOWS PROPOSAL.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Lang Ranch Elementary School doesn't open until September, but it already could be a trend-setting campus.

When the Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees recently designated Lang Ranch as the first district campus not to offer sixth grade, Meadows Elementary School parents and administrators took notice. Now they are pushing for a similar kindergarten- through fifth-grade program, potentially signaling a districtwide trend to move students into middle school sooner.

With only a handful of students choosing to attend sixth grade at Meadows next year, Principal Deanna Roth said she is concerned the school will not be able to provide the variety of programs and electives needed to prepare students for middle school.

``We have managed through the year with a fifth-sixth combination class that has accommodated about 15 sixth-graders, but it has been exceptionally difficult,'' she explained. ``The students' social studies units, for instance, are completely different - the fifth-graders are studying U.S. history while the teacher has to focus on ancient civilizations to keep the sixth-graders on track.''

In a survey of Meadows parents, more than 85 percent indicated they would support the elimination of sixth grade and instead send those students to either Los Cerritos or Colina middle schools.

The Meadows School Site Council presented its proposal to the school board at its meeting last week. A majority of the trustees expressed initial support for the idea.

Both middle schools currently take Meadows students who choose to leave after fifth grade.

To accommodate all Meadows sixth-graders, the district would need to spend about $80,000 to add portable classroom space and lockers at Los Cerritos. Colina could accommodate the additional students.

For Dan Witting, chair of the Los Cerritos School Site Council, the issue is not whether students will benefit from the transitional program but how the campus will handle additional students.

``So there remain some site issues to be worked out, but a couple more portable classrooms might take care of it,'' he said.

School board president Dolores Didio said she is not surprised that a growing number of parents are turning to the middle school program. It opens a door to the more mature world of lockers, rotating classrooms and multiple teachers.

``The fact is that we have seen the sixth-grade enrollment continue to dwindle there, and there will come a point when we could be offering an inferior (sixth-grade) program,'' Didio said. ``We just won't be able to support all the resources needed to give these students the full exposure they need to move on to the higher grades.''

Dorothy Beaubien, one of the least enthusiastic trustees for sixth grades at middle school when the program began five years ago, said she is now convinced it is fast becoming a superior program.

The school board is expected to vote on the proposal next month. If it passes, fifth-graders from Meadows will join Lang Ranch students in having first dibs over students from other elementary schools on slots at Los Cerritos Middle School.

Trustee Elaine McKearn has said in the past that any decision that gives some students priority over others is unfair.

Other parents have said they are most concerned about the district eliminating a parent's choice for having sixth-graders at elementary schools.

Meadows mother Linda Parks said some parents might feel their child is not ready to move on to the middle school level.

``That year can make a big difference for some kids. The choice is an amenity I appreciate,'' said Parks, who has a second-grader and a fourth-grader at Meadows and whose two older children attended Meadows before moving on to Colina.

Even if the board approves the Meadows proposal, parents could still transfer fifth-graders to sixth-graders at other elementary schools, said Richard Simpson, assistant superintendent of instructional services.

Simpson added that while the decision to eliminate the sixth-grade program at Meadows may begin a districtwide trend, some elementary school campuses are bound to keep their sixth-grade classrooms. Westlake Hills and Banyan, for instance, have retained strong enrollment even after the transitional program was introduced.

District officials also noted that eliminating the sixth grade from Meadows and other elementary schools could free valuable classroom space for kindergarten classes to move forward with class-size reduction.