Aliso Families Grapple with Aftermath of Campus Closing

Still reeling from Tuesday's announcement that Aliso Elementary in Lake Forest will close in June, parents now face another dilemma – where to send their children next fall.

On Thursday, officials from Saddleback Valley Unified School District met with a room of Aliso parents to outline their options. Aliso’s 385 students are being moved to Santiago, Rancho Canada and Olivewood elementary schools, but the district is also reopening its school choice process to affected families.

“Families of Aliso will get priority over other students in the district,” said  Kathy Dick, assistant superintendent for instructional services. “We will do our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.”

Families seeking school-choice transfers must file paperwork by May 20.

Although much of Thursday's meeting centered on logistical questions, emotions were clearly still running high after the school board’s unanimous vote Tuesday night to shutter Aliso on June 30.

On Wednesday, about 50 families boycotted the campus, keeping their kids at home to protest the closure decision. And at Thursday's meeting, some parents showed up in the same blue "Save Aliso" T-shirts they wore Tuesday.

The closure process angered many parents, who said it was rushed and didn’t take into account Aliso’s 45-point gain on state API tests last year or its award-winning iEngage program, which uses iPod mini-computers.

“My husband and I worked our butts off to afford a house in this neighborhood so our kids could go to Aliso,” said Tiffany Vega, breaking into tears. “It’s not just a school. It’s our heart. It’s our family. To know it happened in six weeks flat is just ridiculous.”

Other parents were mad that the only Lake Forest school that can accommodate transfer students is Olivewood. In theory, under the district’s school choice program, Aliso students can switch to any district campus. But only a limited number of elementary schools are projected to have open slots.

And the district has no plans to add portables or teachers to any school to accommodate transfers, Dick said. That means if parents don't want their children at Olivewood, which has large numbers of students struggling with English and math proficiency, they must choose a campus in Mission Viejo.

“So Lake Forest kids won’t even be able to go to school in their own town?” parent Rob Lange posted on an online forum after the meeting. “How is that supposed to work when they can’t even go to school with kids that are on their city sports teams, their girl or boy scout troop, their church, or even their friends in their neighborhood?”

Aliso students reassigned to Olivewood may request a  transfer to one of four schools – Del Lago, Santiago, Cordillera and Montevideo elementary – which would include district-paid transportation. Olivewood is deemed a "program improvement" school because not enough of its students have reached the “proficient” or “advanced” levels on state English and math tests.

At the board meeting Tuesday night, Allyson Shimasaki told trustees that a survey of Aliso families whose 144 children were being reassigned to Olivewood found that none planned to send their children there.  She warned the board that, since families must legally be offered the choice to transfer from Olivewood, other schools like Santiago or Del Lago could end up well over capacity.

But Dick urged parents to give Olivewood a chance, noting that the district has already decided to move Aliso’s principal – Crystal Turner – there this fall. She also noted that Aliso was in "program improvement" this year too.

Michelle Mellado, whose daughter Josie is a kindergartner at Aliso, said she had already applied to Del Lago Elementary, but feels more optimistic about Olivewood after Thursday’s meeting.

“I do feel better having gotten a letter from our principal that said she’s going to be there. If I don’t get into Del Lago, we’re going to Olivewood,” said Mellado. “Mrs. Turner is young, and she’s really into the kids and bringing new stuff with the technology.”

Closing Aliso will save the district $400,000 a year, according to the school district, which is losing $3.8 million a year because it has the highest rate of declining enrollment in the county. This year, the district had an excess capacity of 2,925 spots for elementary school students, according to the district.