MOORPARK : Residents Back Division of Grades, Survey Shows

Despite pleas by some Moorpark parents to reduce elementary school busing, most residents want older elementary students to attend different schools than younger children, a new survey shows.

The survey, sponsored by the Moorpark Unified School District and presented at a public forum Tuesday night, showed that 63% of Moorpark residents support the existing division of elementary grades.

Presently, one of the district’s elementary schools has kindergarten through second grades, two have kindergarten through third, one has fourth and fifth grades, and one has third through fifth.

A group called Parents for Better Schools has said the division of grades forces too many students to be bused out of their neighborhoods.

To reduce busing, the group asked the district to change the elementary schools to neighborhood schools serving kindergarten through fifth-grade students--a change that many school officials and parents said would lead to racial segregation.

The survey was conducted by Southwest Regional Laboratories, a Los Alamitos-based research firm.

The questionnaire was mailed to 4,000 households, and 1,068 residents responded.

But district officials said the response represented a cross-section of Moorpark’s 26,000 residents.