Board Should Reendorse School

Good news: Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees came up with an innovative way to make room in the new Lang Ranch Elementary School for neighborhood kids who live close enough to walk.

Bad news: They may have violated the state’s open-meeting law by taking action that wasn’t announced in advance on its agenda.

Good news: Councilwoman Linda Parks called for Thousand Oaks to follow Ventura’s lead and require proof that schools can handle the increased load before any new development is approved. Her four colleagues agreed.

Bad news: In the case of the Woodridge project, which brought this whole matter to a head, Supt. Jerry Gross had stood up in public and assured the City Council that the developer’s $1.8-million fee would be enough to let the school system handle the anticipated Woodridge kids. He just didn’t say where or how--and that is when the tussle began.

We applaud trustee Dolores Didio’s suggestion that a fair way to create space in Lang Ranch Elementary would be to change it from K-6 to K-5. Nonetheless, we share the concern voiced by other board members and parents that some sixth-graders might lack the maturity to flourish in middle school. That is a sensitive age, and some students who thrive as the oldest kids on an elementary school campus might have difficulty being the youngest at a middle school instead.

The district now allows sixth-graders to choose whether they want to attend elementary school or one of the four middle schools. Students graduating from the fifth grade at Lang Ranch would have to move to another elementary school if their parents did not want them to attend sixth grade at a middle school.

We encourage the parents and teachers of sixth-graders who opt for middle school to watch extra carefully for signs of problems.

And speaking of problems . . . The board adopted Didio’s idea in such a rush that it may have outrun the due-process constraints of the Brown Act. The meeting was billed as a discussion of school boundaries and it’s debatable whether the decision to send sixth-graders elsewhere qualifies as a “boundary” issue.

To remove the uncertainty, we suggest the board schedule another vote on the issue, with proper advance notice and opportunity for public comment.

But unless someone brings forward a better alternative, we encourage the board to repeat its endorsement of making Lang Ranch K-5.