Trustees to Review Report on Moiola’s Upper Grades

Fountain Valley School District trustees, forced to cancel a meeting in November because of overcrowding, will meet Thursday to consider a report on closing Fred Moiola Elementary School’s sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Moiola has been the only holdout to retain a kindergarten-through-eighth grade structure in the 15 years since the district started using middle schools.

Trustees will review a staff report about the benefits and the problems of keeping Moiola’s grade configuration.

School officials have said that enrollment in upper grades is low at Moiola and that students in those grades do not have access to the same educational materials, including some science and computer equipment, as their peers enrolled in the district’s three middle schools.

“There is an equity issue, and I think everyone is sensitive to that,� said Fountain Valley Supt. Marc Ecker. “It came up because there are concerns, because all of our students should have equal educational opportunities.�

Recent complaints from parents about limited resources for upper grades pushed the issue to the foreground in 1996, Ecker said.

The staff report addresses test scores, allocation of educational materials and behavioral issues. Officials are not expected to take action at the meeting. Grade configuration changes, if approved, could be phased in as early as September.

A second option before the trustees would keep Moiola as a K-8 operation but transform it into a magnet school to boost enrollment.

Ecker said his staff prepared an objective report and will not make a recommendation.

Moiola enrollment in the upper grades is 153 compared with about 2,000 students attending the middle schools. If Moiola disbands the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, open enrollment would allow parents to choose between Harry C. Fulton, Kazuo Masuda and Samuel E. Talbert middle schools.

The proposal to reconfigure Moiola is unrelated to recent efforts to reduce class sizes in the first, second and third grades, Ecker said.

In anticipation of crowds, the trustees are meeting at Fulton Middle School, 8778 El Lago St., rather than district headquarters. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.