School district sets guidelines on school closures
By Joann Groff  joann@theacorn.com

Two months after the school board voted to close two schools in 2009, parents now have a better idea of how Conejo Valley Unified staff members will go about deciding which neighborhood schools could be shutting their doors.

The facilities goals committee members presented a scoring system that will help them rank which elementary schools are better candidates for closure.

In the study session last week, a blind scoring process was introduced.

The 20 elementary schools will be marked as School A through School T so no one on the committee will be tempted to think subjectively, said Jeff Baarstad, deputy superintendent of business services.

The committee will score the 20 schools using four primary criteria. Each school will receive a score of 1 to 3 for each criterion--the higher the score, the better candidate for closure.

The first criterion is the number of resident students who will be directly displaced. This will be largely based on enrollment but will only count those students who are attending the school within their neighborhood boundaries, not those who "choiced in" to a nonneighborhood school.

The school with the largest number of resident students will be given a 1, and the school with the least amount of resident students will be scored a 3. The rest of the schools will be scored with a precise number in between.

The next criterion is to look at the ability of adjacent schools to absorb displaced students, and each school will be scored a 1 to 3 based on the capacity of the next closest schools to accept the new students.

"The goal is to move displaced students to as few schools as possible," said Baarstad. "If the excess capacity in the three closest schools (to the one that closed) is 200 students, but 400 are being displaced, that will produce a domino effect, which we'd like to avoid. It would continue to push more kids out further and further."

The committee also wants to consider the distance displaced students will have to travel to attend a new school. And lastly, the committee would like to look at the quality of school facilities relative to CVUSD standards.

The facilities studied will be the multipurpose room, the library, class size, computer lab, staff workroom, administrative and health offices, playgrounds and traffic/on-site parking. Each facility will be scored a 1 (exceeds expectations), 2 (meets expectations) or 3 (below expectations), although they will be weighted differently. For example, the MPR, library and class size are worth more than the lab, workroom and offices. The recreational facilities and traffic issues have the least weight.

After all schools are scored 1 to 3 in each of the four criteria, the numbers will be averaged and Schools A through T will be ranked with one number. The committee will look for a natural break that singles out three to six schools scoring the highest. These top candidates for closure will then be put through a list of secondary criteria, which are still being formulated.

As of now, the committee is considering the following criteria for the second round of scoring: 1) the number of nonresident students that will be displaced, 2) the number of special day class students that will be displaced, 3) the impact of student diversity, 4) the number of additional major streets or highways students will need to cross, 5) the need to provide additional busing, 6) the impact on middle and high school boundaries and 7) the potential for long-term lease of a closed school.

A public hearing will be held at the Dec. 4 school board meeting to allow parents and staff to comment on the criteria ideas. After the hearing, the school board will most likely vote on whether to approve the criteria.

After the presentation, the board commended the committee on a job well done, and everyone who spoke was supportive of the criteria recommended.

"I am amazed at what you people have done," said board vice president Dorothy Beaubien. "I think this is absolutely phenomenal. I think we knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I don't think anyone expected all of this. We need to thank you tremendously."

Members of the committee said that because the subject was so personal, it was tough keeping feelings out of the discussion.