NVUSD delays redrawing borders
Trustees finally get the input they have sought
By NATALIE HOFFMAN
Register Staff Writer
Napa Valley Unified School District's board meeting roomisn't usually a nighttime hot spot, but it became one when more than 100 peopleturned up Thursday evening.
The crowd's mission was clear - persuading the schoolboard to postpone implementing local high school attendance boundaries toaccommodate the 2010 opening of American Canyon High School.
Following a year's worth of planning and town hallmeetings in Napa and American Canyon, the school board was expected to finalizean attendance boundary plan Thursday night. A district-appointed committeeknown as the Program and Facilities Task Force recently recommended what isknown as Plan D, one of at least 20 options considered since last year.
The plan is designed to balance both the number ofstudents and the socio-economic status of the student bodies at Napa andVintage high schools, dictating that some switch schools midway through theirhigh school careers. Boundary changes will also reduce students' ability toparticipate in open enrollment - the program allowing students to transfer tocampuses outside their neighborhood boundaries.
Beginning with the 2010-2011 school year, Plan D wouldhave students living northeast of Redwood Road and West Pueblo Avenue - andmost residing east of Jefferson Street - attend Vintage High School. Studentsin south and west Napa would attend Napa High, and today's seventh- andeighth-graders would be impacted.
But critics of Plan D say students living in the McPhersonneighborhood would face negative repercussions because of the change.
Addressing the board in Spanish with the help of atranslator, Lourdes Alaniz, a mother of two McPherson Elementary Schoolstudents, said some parents and students in her neighborhood face considerableobstacles, including learning a new language, financial struggles andtransportation challenges. Many of these parents, she said, would be unable totransport their children to Vintage, and Plan D would inconvenience these alreadystruggling families.
Robb Felder, NVUSD board clerk, said the school districtand its committee worked to find "the most balanced and equitable plan," addingthat the McPherson area was not intentionally targeted.
Members of Leadership Academy Youth Leaders in Action alsoaddressed the school board Thursday evening, including Carla Gomez, a senior atNapa High School.
"Even though this (proposal) will not affect me," shesaid, "it will affect my younger siblings."
LAYLA members said Plan D would essentially "cut theMcPherson neighborhood in half," and asked the board to postpone adopting anattendance boundary plan for three weeks. The group also offered to host a townhall meeting to review the proposed borders and work with the district torevise them if possible.
For his part, NVUSD Board Vice-president Tom Kensokrecommended extending the deadline.
"This is the crowd we've been looking for for months. ...I am for delaying it a month or a month and a half and I also feel that we needto sit down with paper and pens, not microphones," he said.
Board President Frances Ortiz-Chavez said the board wouldpostpone adopting a plan and instead revisit the issue in about three weeks.
"We wanted (this input) back a year ago, which would havereally helped. ... In the end, we have to make the decision to draw the lines.... Please remember that no matter how we draw (them) someone's not going to behappy because they'll have to move schools," she said.
