Meadows and University students get priority in choice

Students who are displaced from Meadows and University schools next year will have top priority in choosing what school they will attend instead.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously earlier this month to revamp the school choice guidelines to bring displaced students to the top of the list.

Trustees voted last year to close two elementary schools in response to declining enrollment in the area and cuts in the state budget for education. Meadows and University have been identified for closure in the 2009-10 school year.

About 400 students live within the attendance boundaries of Meadows and University schools.

Boundaries have been redrawn, and Meadows students will attend Ladera or Westlake Hills, and Manzanita kids will head to one of four schools: Banyan, Maple, Walnut or Madrona. The school into which a student is redrawn will become the youngster's new "neighborhood school."

However, families that want to send a child to a different school will get top priority.

—Joann Groff