Fresno Unified Examines School Boundaries
By Pablo Lopez, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Jul. 31–Hundreds of families would be affected under a proposal to shift student attendance boundaries at four overcrowded southeast Fresno elementary schools.
The Fresno Unified School District school board said Storey, Winchell, Balderas and Aynesworth elementary schools are busting at the seams with students, but took no immediate action Wednesday on the proposal.
Under the plan, students from Storey, Winchell and Balderas would be sent to the campus of the Academy of New Americans on Church Avenue, west of Peach Avenue. Students at the academy — English learners who are new to the United States — would be educated at another school.
After learning of the proposal, trustees quickly expressed concern that Superintendent Michael Hanson’s administrative staff didn’t include a recommendation to construct another southeast elementary school.
"We don’t need a Band-Aid solution," trustee Valerie Davis said.
Trustee Manuel Nunez agreed, saying the district has been dragging its feet for years on building another southeast elementary school. The state has approved the district’s request to build an elementary school, and the district has money to build it from the Measure K bond measure that voters approved in 2001, Nunez said.
"We have to quit talking about it because talk is cheap," Nunez said.
But Hanson said that before any schools are built, Fresno Unified must complete a districtwide facilities plan that should be finished later this year.
Trustee Janet Ryan, however, had another idea. She said the district should cap enrollment when a school reaches its capacity. Students who are late to enroll could be bused to north Fresno schools where enrollment is low, she said.
Trustee Cal Johnson opposed Ryan’s idea, saying the busing of children hurts their ability to get involved in after-school programs and sports.
The southeast area is the fastest-growing area of the district. About half of the district’s elementary school children are taught in portable classrooms, but those numbers are much higher in the southeast area, district officials said.
For example, Storey Elementary has a capacity for 940 students, but district officials predict the enrollment will climb to 1,047 students in the coming school year.
Overcrowding at Aynesworth Elementary has forced the district to send 150 sixth-graders to Terronez Middle School this coming school year, a practice that was used last school year, said Lisa LeBlanc, the district facilities management executive director.
Fresno Unified middle schools teach seventh- and eighth-graders.
Aynesworth, with a capacity of 894 students, expects an enrollment of 957 students this coming school year, she said.
The boundary shift would send 410 students at Storey, 132 students at Winchell and 170 students at Balderas to the academy campus on Church Avenue. The move would drop Storey’s enrollment to 593 students and Winchell’s to 738 students. Balderas, however, would receive 170 students from Aynesworth, keeping Balderas’ enrollment at 725 students, but dropping Aynesworth’s enrollment to 787 students.
If trustees approve the plan, it would affect about 880 students in the 2009-10 school year, LeBlanc said.
No new boundaries have been established, and the staff is still researching where to send the academy students, she said.
Hanson said his staff will come back with a more specific recommendation later this year.
The district will then inform parents and get feedback from them before the school board takes a vote.
The reporter can be reached at plopez@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6434.
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