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Drawing the line: KHSD to decide who will attend new Frontie
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Posted by nwv_admin Fri Dec 3, 2004 13:53:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments As always, the latest Kern High School District boundary changes are causing controversy - even before lines have been officially drawn to determine who will attend the new Frontier High School near Kratzmeyer and Allen roads.

A number of parents attended the Nov. 9 public hearing at Liberty High School to express their views to the boundary committee, made up of 70 community members. Residents will have one more public meeting on Dec. 14 at North High to provide comment on the proposed changes before the committee chooses one of three plans to present to the superintendent for approval.

All three plans - A, B and C - carve out space for Frontier. The boundaries for Stockdale, Centennial, Liberty And North high schools will be affected. Some students will be moved from their current high schools to one of the other schools. Frontier, set to open in 2006, will accept freshmen and sophomores its first year.

It seems deciding who will attend Frontier High School will inevitably leave someone unhappy. Parents whose children will go to Frontier have concerns about AP classes, extracurricular activities and JV and varsity sports. Members of smaller districts, like Norris and Rio Bravo Greeley, feel their students are unfairly impacted by the proposed boundaries. And there are worries that it will take some time for Frontier to attain the quality level of other area high schools.

"I look at Centennial and I see great facilities, an experienced faculty and proven success," said parent Peggy Shue. "I look at Frontier and I see dirt. Where would you want to send your child?"

Although the Shues live within walking distance of Centennial High School, her daughter Elizabeth is among the students slated to transfer to Frontier High as a sophomore the first year the school opens.

Shue, who lives due east of the Norris campus in The Gardens, said she would feel better about the whole thing if committee members or the district would lay things out for her.

"I don't like the idea of her going to high school where she's the oldest kid in the whole place," said Shue. "She was looking forward to long-standing school traditions and a wide-range of ages. She's someone who thrives on that."

Shue also is concerned about academics. "What about electives and AP classes? She's currently taking freshman-level math. Will they be able to offer Algebra 2 or Calculus to her as a sophomore?" Shue wondered.

Sports are another area of contention. Elizabeth has dreamed of playing on the high school soccer team since she was a child, and Shue is worried there won't be a soccer team at Frontier. And she has a friend whose daughters excel at sports - will they have the chance to make the JV or varsity team as freshmen, or will there be no upper-level teams?

Charles Rosengard, manager of the KHSD research and planning department, said the district will address these concerns.

"We form a committee and make a decision on a plan early - before those who will be freshmen at the new high school start eighth grade - in order to prepare students for the adjustment. We get them involved in pre-opening activities - like choosing a mascot - before school even starts," he said.

In addition to encouraging school spirit, the new school will have GATE, a band, and a mix of new and experienced teachers. And sophomores won't face a loss of academic eligibility, Rosengard promised.

Susan Brasier's calendar is clearly marked for the December meeting, but it's getting to the point where the public participation process isn't as exciting as it once was. This is the third time her family has been personally impacted by boundary changes.

"It's ridiculous. It's hard on kids to continually change schools and get split up," said Brasier, who's lived in the Rio Bravo Greeley District for seven years.

Instead of going to Stockdale High School, her oldest son, Kristophor, now 19, was in the first freshman class at Liberty High School. Her son Timothy, now a sophomore at Liberty, was slated to go to Stockdale because of boundary changes, but was allowed to attend Liberty because his sibling Michael, now a senior, was there. The current boundary plans have Megan, an eighth-grader at Rio Bravo, attending Stockdale.

Brasier feels her district is unfairly targeted because of its size.

"We're small, versus big districts like Rosedale. It's easier to split us up," she said.

Brasier hoped Megan could be grandfathered into Liberty because of Timothy, but that won't work because he should technically be attending Stockdale. "We found out she'll have to go into the lottery like everyone else," she said, adding that even her youngest son Nicholas, a fourth-grader at Rio Bravo, will ultimately be affected by current changes.

"He wants to go to Liberty. We know the teachers. It's in the family," she said, noting that regardless of the immediate outcome for Megan, she'll inevitably be affected her sophomore year when friends leave for Frontier.

The 70-member committee in charge of choosing one school boundary change plan was set up by the KHSD to listen to concerns like Brasier's and take them into consideration when making their decision.

According to Rosengard, 42 are parents and the rest are community members who have expressed an interest in the project. No administrators are on the committee. Since the end of September, these 70 individuals have devoted a minimum of three hours per week to the process.

"These are people who have a history of following through on commitments," said Rosengard, who noted that such committees have been used eight times since 1978.

Cal State's Dr. Bill Perry is a co-chair of the committee, and said, since his children are grown and he has no vested interest in the changes, that he's there to provide guidance. He said while concerns such as Brasier's are well-founded, his experience has demonstrated students' ability to adjust.

"Sometimes concerns can be a little overstated. Why invite problems? In the past, on final analysis, kids have adjusted OK," said Perry.

Julie Naworski agrees that overstating one's case is out of bounds. "I wasn't one of those people who got up at the last meeting and said, ' My family bleeds Golden Hawk. It's in our hearts.' I mean, c'mon," she said.

Naworski, a former teacher, lives west of Patton Way and south of Snow Road. Her children attend Norris Middle and Bimat. She brought a petition with 200 signatures to the November meeting supporting plans B and C. A would send students in the Norris district to three different schools - an estimated 45 percent to Centennial, 45 percent to Frontier and 10 percent to North High. Her daughter would attend North.

Naworski doesn't have a beef with North. And she's not dead-set on Centennial or Frontier. "I just don't want Norris kids going to three different schools," she said.

"And by the time you subtract those students who use false addresses to attend Centennial and go to private schools like Garces and Bakersfield Christian, it'll probably be more like 5 percent going to North," said Naworski, who first learned of the proposed mapping when she attended a pre-hearing at Centennial. "It seemed like they were jigging and jagging lines on the map to keep 100 percent of Rosedale Middle and Freedom Middle students going to the same schools. But what about us?"

She just wants her daughter to go to school with friends. And as for North High? She said they don't need Norris anymore.

"They don't need us like they did in the past - to boost enrollment and for socio-economic reasons," said Naworski, who said the reasoning she has gotten from the boundary committee is that Norris students have traditionally made up the North student council and parents have made up the PTC.

"But that doesn't apply anymore. Leaving those positions to Standard and Beardsley students and parents doesn't mean North will go to hell in a handbasket."

Naworski's other concern is safety. She calculated that while the main Norris campus on Calloway is two miles from Centennial and Frontier, it's six miles from North, and you have to cross two railroad tracks and either go over or under 99 to get there. "Because of fog and other hazards, I just can't look at my daughter and say, ‘They need a strong PTC,'" she said.

Naworski attended the last meeting and she plans to speak at the December meeting and present additional signatures. "It's not a Q and A and they say right up front they don't answer questions. A lot of it is just to get it off your chest, to put your two cents in and say, ‘They listened to me.'"

This isn't likely to be the last boundary controversy in the Northwest. The KHSD is planning two new schools to be built in 2008 - one in East Bakersfield and one in the Southwest -- but after that there will be more school construction in the Northwest.

"After 2008 we'll probably focus again in the North," said Rosengard. "It's the newly developed regions that tend to be affected. We go where the kids are."

How to participate:
Mail comments to the research and planning department at 5801 Sundale Ave., Bakersfield, 93309.
E-mail comments to boundaryquestions@khsd.k12.ca.us. Comments will be distributed to all members of the committee.

For maps and more information:
Go to the KHSD Web site, www.khsd.k12.ca.us and click the "boundaries" icon. The updated plan or plans to be presented on Dec. 14 will be posted by 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10:

Next steps:
The next public hearing will be Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. in the North High School auditorium at 300 Galaxy Ave.
The boundary committee has been asked to submit the proposal no later than Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005, to the superintendent for his consideration and submission to the board of trustees for action.

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