Parents object to SJUSD plan to redraw boundaries

Critics say that proposed changes would divide their neighborhoods

By Jessica Lyons

Plans to redraw elementary school boundaries, and return San Jose Unified students to their neighborhood schools, would split apart existing neighborhoods, say Willow Glen parents.

At a community meeting on Oct. 12, about 40 local parents criticized the district's proposed changes, telling the Board of Education that the current plans will result in neighborhood kids attending multiple schools.

"You guys are killing our neighborhood," said Kathy Sheley, whose kindergarten daughter attends Booksin. "I don't understand how, when you're talking about keeping neighborhoods together, ours got so divided."

Sheley lives on Harte Drive, currently in Booksin territory. Under the proposed boundary changes, however, Sheley's street will be split down the middle. Children on Sheley's side will attend Schallenberger, while kids on the other side of the street will attend Booksin. "We are a very small street, and now we'll have kids going everywhere," Sheley said.

The proposed boundary changes would affect 16 elementary schools, all north of Hillsdale Avenue. It would shrink enrollment at Booksin, Willow Glen and Schallenberger, sending about 675 future elementary school students living east of Almaden Expressway to Canoas School, scheduled to open in fall 2000.

The public hearing last week gave residents one more chance to voice concerns before the board makes its final decision on Oct. 21.

Under the plan, children could continue going to the schools they now attend even if the boundaries change. Because of parent concerns raised at previous meetings, the proposal also recommends younger brothers and sisters be allowed to attend schools where an older sibling is already enrolled.

But some people say that's not enough. They want their children attending the same school the next-door neighbor kid attends.

Carrie Maietta lives in Booksin territory, but under the proposed changes, her home between Newport and Minnesota avenues will fall into Willow Glen Elementary's boundaries. Her two children currently attend Booksin Elementary; the new boundaries won't affect her family directly, but might affect families in the neighborhood with younger children.

Maietta's neighborhood of 35 families has lobbied the board to re-draw the proposed boundary lines, keeping the area between Newport and Minnesota in the Booksin attendance area.

Three years ago, children in this neighborhood attended Willow Glen. But in 1997--when the school board redrew boundaries in preparation for the return to neighborhood schools after 11 years of court-ordered busing--the board decided that Booksin was this community's true neighborhood school. Now, in 1999, the lines are again changing, and the children in Maietta's neighborhood are again reshuffled to a different school.

"How come our boundaries keep changing?" Maietta asked the board. "Our neighborhood's being fragmented, and it makes it really difficult to develop a community. You guys keep yanking the carpet out once we finally get our feet settled."

Some parents in Maietta's neighborhood said Booksin's high test scores were a key factor in their desire to keep their neighborhood kids at Booksin.

John Cesare lives in Booksin boundaries, but would be moved to Willow Glen's area, according to the proposal. "I have a difficult time being enthusiastic about being part of a school with historically lower test scores," he said.

Willow Glen Elementary parents and teachers, however, were eager to come to their school's defense.

"I would like to invite any of the Booksin parents who are here tonight to come visit my class," said Janice Allen, a second-grade teacher at Willow Glen. "I think Willow Glen is a fantastic school. We are committed to raising our test scores. But standardized testing is only one measure of a student's performance. You have to look at the entire child."

Board member Gary Rummelhoff tried to assure worried parents that the end result--neighborhood schools--would be worth the reshuffling of students.

"Neighborhoods are what schools are all about," Rummelhoff said. "That's what we have to get to, but we're not there yet. The people in this room are part of that change. Believe me, this board is trying to get it right."

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