PUSD board to discuss school boundaries Tuesday

By: ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer | Friday, January 12, 2007 10:25 PM PST ∞

POWAY ---- Parents in the Poway Unified School District will get a chance to weigh in on proposed attendance boundaries for its fifth comprehensive high school Tuesday night at Morning Creek Elementary School in Sabre Springs.

The issue tops the list of discussion items on an agenda for a 7 p.m. school board meeting at Morning Creek Elementary School. The campus is at 10925 Morning Creek Drive South.

Poway Unified serves kindergarten-through-12th-grade students living in Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Carmel Mountain and Sabre Springs.

The district plans to break ground on Del Norte High School this summer on the corner of Camino del Norte and Lone Trail Road in the 4S Ranch community west of Rancho Bernardo. The campus is scheduled to open in fall 2009.

Del Norte High will join Poway, Rancho Bernardo, Mt. Carmel and Westview high schools on the list of comprehensive secondary campuses operated by the district. Poway Unified also has Abraxas High School, which is an alternative campus in Poway.

The four regular high schools already open have student populations that range from 2,296 to 3,051. Del Norte's future opening presents the district with an opportunity to balance out those numbers and reduce the number of students at any one school by redrawing attendance boundaries.

Efforts to decide which students will attend Del Norte began 18 months ago, when a 30-member committee took on the task on behalf of the school district. The group's members include community members, school staff members, leaders of the district's employees unions, and parents.

The results of the group's work were released Friday, when Poway Unified posted a report on the proposed boundary plan on the district's Web site at http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us. The report includes a multicolored map that shows how teenagers throughout the district would be divided among all five high schools once the Del Norte campus opens.

The plan calls for the new school to serve only ninth- and 10th-grade students in its first year. An 11th-grade class would be added at Del Norte the following year, with the school getting its first senior class in 2011.

Students living in 4S Ranch and nearby communities such as Del Sur, Santa Fe Valley and Christopher Hill would be the school's primary attendees, under the plan. Students from some sections of Rancho Bernardo currently assigned to that community's high school would also be shifted to Del Norte, as would some teens in some areas that currently served by Mt. Carmel High, if the plan is adopted.

Setting school attendance boundaries is difficult because of the ripple effect a change in any one line can have on schools throughout the district. Shifting large numbers of children from one school to another can also spark controversy.

Poway Unified experienced that in 2001, when the district's attempt to readjust existing boundaries angered many Poway parents who objected to the possibility of their children being sent to schools outside the city. The situation was resolved when district officials decided to leave the boundaries alone.

Poway Unified eliminated most complaints when it adopted a "family-friendly" approach that generally allows students assigned to one high school transfer to another campus if they want. Del Norte's attendance plan incorporates the same strategy.

Poway Unified spokeswoman Sharon Raffer said school officials expect the number of teens transferring to and from Del Norte to balance each other out.

"The kids in the neighborhood (around the future high school), a number of them want to go to that high school even though it's small and all," she said. "So do a number of kids in other areas that want to there ... cause they like the idea of small classes."

The new high school's population will remain relatively small until 2013, under the proposed plan. However, the report says the approach will minimize boundary adjustments and enable Poway Unified to increase the diversity of programs offered at all five of its comprehensive high schools.

The board is not expected to vote on Del Norte High School's attendance plan until its February meeting.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.

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