Student Transfers

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board plans to review student transfers between district schools at its meeting tonight. At its Feb. 10 meeting the board voted to continue its moratorium on transfers in elementary grades. It decided to continue allowing transfers in grades 7-12, on a space-available basis, but asked district staff for a review of the 1997-98 transfers.

California's community colleges were envisioned by the state's Master Plan for Higher Education as a low-cost alternative for students to complete the first two years of college before transferring to a four-year school. They were also designed for students whose ultimate educational goal was to attain an associate's degree or career certification. But a report issued last week calls into question the success of those missions. The report, issued by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento, documents abysmally low student transfer and completion rates at the state's community colleges.

School district officials said they are continuing a document review to determine whether transfers from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach schools are throwing off the ethnic balance on individual campuses. Newport-Mesa Unified School District began an investigation in early February of the district's open enrollment policy, which allows students to attend any school they choose.

Parents touring Richard Henry Dana Middle School in Hawthorne were impressed last week with descriptions of its history, science and arts programs, intrigued by a class conducting DNA experiments and pleased with the cleanliness of the campus. But one issue dominated: Will my child get a permit from the Los Angeles Unified School District to attend Dana? It is a question on the minds of thousands of parents in the wake of a decision by Los Angeles schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines to greatly limit permits that currently allow more than 12,200 students who live in the district to attend schools elsewhere.

The Capistrano Unified School District Board voted recently to send more than 700 children to different schools because of so-called "imbalances of enrollment". The children who are being transferred from Castille Elementary School to Barcelona Hills are leaving their houses not yet built. The board speaks of keeping schools oriented to neighborhoods but completely ignores the concept of a neighborhood as it exists in the school itself. They also ignore the fact that, this fall, children who move into newly completed homes (many miles away in Coto de Caza)

A public hearing will be conducted today on the Brea-Olinda Unified School District's proposed policy changes on student transfers. The meeting is at 8:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of the Brea Civic Center. Beginning with the coming academic year, the Board of Education is proposing to ban intra-district transfers from Laurel and Olinda elementary schools. School officials hope to increase Laurel's enrollment from 285 currently to 400, and to keep Olinda's at 200 students.

Members of the Roosevelt High girls' basketball team characterize Lorenzo Garcia as dedicated and caring, a coach who goes out of his way to help in time of need. Parents and school administrators praise the sixth-year coach as hard-working, citing his fund-raising efforts to purchase uniforms and warm-ups and put on awards banquets. He is also successful on the court.

A proposal to change the student transfer policy is on the agenda for tonight's meeting of Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustees. Under the proposal, the district would consider accepting students from outside Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. In the past, district officials have said their budget would not allow such transfers. The new proposal would allow the district to deny transfer requests if no space were available at the particular school the student wished to attend.

A plan to transfer about a third of Brookhaven Elementary School students to four other district schools was given final approval this week by the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District trustees. The plan sparked opposition from parents of Brookhaven students, who claim the move will weaken the school by drastically reducing enrollment. Parents have turned out en masse to protest the plan at every board meeting since district Supt. James O. Fleming announced his intentions May 4.

In a ruling that may lead to a review of Newport-Mesa's "zero tolerance" policy, a college-bound senior expelled over suspicions he had been smoking marijuana has won the right to return to Corona del Mar High School, his attorney said Monday. The student, Ryan Huntsman, said the empty zip-lock bag and pipe that a police officer found in his car two months ago belonged to a friend. The 18-year-old took and passed a drug test to prove his innocence, said David Shores, the student's attorney.

Taylor Short said the last few weeks have been like walking through a fog, unable to see what's ahead. The Beverly Vista Elementary eighth-grader has no idea where she'll enroll next year. She wonders whether she'll stay in touch with her best friends and feels let down by adults. David Yona, a top athlete at El Rodeo Elementary, said he had been looking forward to the summer, when sports teams condition and train. Sadness sets in when he thinks about the fun he will probably miss before he starts his freshman year in the fall.

USC quarterback Aaron Corp, who won the starting job last spring but was displaced by Matt Barkley after being injured in training camp, announced Thursday that he was transferring to the University of Richmond. Corp will begin classes at Richmond on Monday and participate in spring practice. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining and can play in the coming season because Richmond is in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA. "Richmond allowed me the opportunity to compete and play right away and I was very comfortable meeting with Coach [Latrell]

Community college student Kristen Grand dreams of transferring to Cal State Long Beach so she can earn a bachelor's degree in social work and become an adoption caseworker. But the process of accumulating the right course work and filling all the requirements is overwhelming, the 26-year-old says. "It's kind of stressful," Grand said after class at Long Beach City College one afternoon this week. "Finances, for one, and whether I'm going to get the right amount of counseling to figure out what I need to do."

Leaders of California's public college and university systems announced Wednesday that they are launching a joint task force to boost the number of community college students who transfer to the state's four-year universities. Only 14,000 of the 2.7 million students enrolled in the state's 110 community colleges transfer to University of California campuses, and 55,000 others move on to California State University campuses.

Facing yawning budget gaps, California's public universities are shifting thousands of applicants into a community college system already swamped by newly unemployed adults and students priced out of other schools. By holding down enrollment, the shift would help balance budgets at UC and CSU campuses.

The Southern Section said Wednesday it has started an inquiry into whether any rules were broken in the numerous transfers of talented boys basketball players who have played at perennial CIF power Compton Dominguez High. "We have received a request from the CIF Southern Section, and the request is under consideration at this time," Compton Unified School District spokeswoman Christine Sanchez said.

Faced with a growing problem of overcrowding at one school and significant under-enrollment at another, Ocean View School District officials plan to transfer 43 students on Monday. The students will leave Oak View Elementary School, where officials say overcrowding has complicated education. They will relocate a mile west to Golden View Elementary School, a campus that was on the verge of closing last year because of a lack of students.

USC sophomore forward Kyle Austin confirmed Tuesday that he intended to transfer at the semester break to a Big West Conference school because of a lack of playing time. "I really didn't see a spot for me on this team," said Austin, who had played only two minutes this season before suffering a serious back injury in practice last month that has sidelined him indefinitely.

Only one-fourth of California's community college students seeking a degree transferred to a university or earned an associate's degree or certificate within six years, a report released Thursday found. Researchers at Cal State Sacramento said the figure was an unintended consequence of state policies created over the last few decades to remove barriers to community college access.