ORANGE : Trustees Accept Proposal to Alleviate Overcrowding

Trustees of the Orange Unified School District have accepted the final proposals of an advisory committee to alleviate overcrowding in part of the district.

On the east side, Imperial Elementary will be closed to all new enrollees until a new school can be built in Anaheim Hills, a project expected to be completed within two to three years, officials said last week. New students will attend Crescent Primary, according to the plan.

Fifth-graders who now attend West Orange Elementary will go to Portola Middle School for their sixth-grade year. The school already has a small number of sixth-graders, committee co-chairman Phil Morse said.

Trustees accepted the plans, which will be presented to the public at a hearing scheduled for April 27. The board is to vote on final adoption May 11.

Administrators, teachers and parents have been meeting since February to hammer out short-term solutions to severe overcrowding in some schools until the committee can propose changes in attendance boundaries for the entire district.

The original proposals called for the sixth-grade classes at Imperial and West Orange to be moved to middle schools next year. But vocal opposition from parents won a modified plan for the east-side Imperial students.

The revised plan for Imperial is based on the school’s attrition rate, said Beverly L. Young, one of the subcommittee chairs. If no new students are allowed to enroll, the school should be at its capacity for the next two years, she said.