Plan to Redo Junior High Boundaries Angers Some : Education: Simi Valley school board will look at committee proposal to shift Sequoia students to three other campuses, some as far as three miles away.

SIMI VALLEY — New boundaries for junior high schools would scatter students from central neighborhoods to three schools across the city--a proposal that has enraged some parents.

With the school board’s decision to turn the Sequoia Junior High campus into a magnet high school, the district has proposed a new set of attendance boundaries for the remaining junior highs.

The proposal carves up the area now served by Sequoia, sending about 1,200 students to Hillside Junior High on the city’s southern edge, Sinaloa to the west or Valley View to the north.

For some students, their new assigned schools would be more than three miles away.

The distance, and the disruption the reorganization could bring, alarms some parents.

“They’re taking away our neighborhood schools,” said Nan Mostacciuolo, whose youngest child would be sent to Hillside instead of nearby Sequoia. “I want them to be going to school with the neighborhood kids I know.”

The new boundary lines, if approved by the school board, would take effect in the fall. But students attending Sequoia could remain at the school another year while the magnet school program is being phased in.

The new boundary lines are still just proposals, said Deputy Supt. Susan Parks, who served on the committee that drafted them. The school board is scheduled to discuss the plan Tuesday.

Parents living in the affected areas will receive notices next week informing them of upcoming meetings at which they can get more information on the plan and give district officials feedback. The school board will then vote on the boundaries, possibly Jan. 23.

Parks said the district remains open to suggestions from parents on how the lines should be drawn.

“We’ll collect the information from those [meetings] and see if we need to go back to the drawing board,” she said.

Some parents, especially those who live close to Sequoia, are already concerned by what the redrawn boundary map could mean for their children.

Joann Levine lives on Marcy Court, just north of the Simi Valley Freeway and yards west of Sequoia Avenue. Sequoia Junior High School is roughly five blocks from her house.

Sinaloa, where her fifth-grade daughter would now be sent, is more than three miles distant.

Worse than the distance, however, is the possible disruption of her daughter’s friendships with children on the other side of Sequoia.

“She will be the only one in my little area who will be separated from everyone she’s known,” Levine said. “They throw kids around from school to school, and they don’t think of the ramifications. These kids have bonded.”

Laurel Murphy, who lives on Grafton Street, said her children would no longer be able to walk to class.

“I’m going to have to plan on doing the car-pool thing, or we’ll have to get up extra early,” she said. “I’ll be filling up my car at quarter to 8 instead of saying goodbye at quarter after 8.”

The committee that drew the new boundaries considered many of these possible problems, committee member Ellie Kieffer said. As they met Dec. 6 to hammer out the boundary lines, the members tried to minimize the distance that children would have to travel, make sure that students would have safe routes to walk to school and prevent crowding at the remaining schools, she said.

Kieffer, an instructional aide for special education students, said the committee members understood the potential disruption that the new lines could create.

“I’m a parent too,” she said. “We’re trying to be as fair as we can.”

The boundary proposals include:

* Hillside: The boundary line would start at Sunnydale Avenue southwest of the school, turn east on Erringer Road, swing north on Gibson Avenue, turn east again on Arcane Street, then take Erringer north to the Simi Valley Freeway. The line would follow the freeway east to Sequoia Avenue, take Sequoia south to Cochran Street, follow Cochran east to Tapo Canyon Road and run south on Tapo Canyon to the city limits.

* Valley View: The boundaries would encompass the eastern end of the city, starting east of Sequoia Avenue, south of Cochran, following Cochran east to Tapo Canyon Road and Tapo Canyon south to the city line.

* Sinaloa: The boundaries would encompass the western and northern portions of the city. The school would also include students living north of the freeway and west of Sequoia Avenue.