School District Handling Steady Stream of Transfer Requests

As of last week, the Fountain Valley School District has received more than 650 requests for transfers wthin the district, Assistant Superintendent for Business Steve McMahon said Monday.

The bulk of the requests--between 350 and 400--have come from parents of children who were displaced when the district's Board of Trustees voted in December to close Fred Moiola K-8 School, McMahon said. Most of the rest have come from parents whose children's schools changed when the board voted to redraw the district's boundary lines in January.

Parents received letters in mid-February telling them which school their children would attend in the fall, but the district agreed to expand its already liberal policy on accpeting transfer requests in an effort to accommodate as many requests as possible, McMahon said. Priority will be given to displaced Moiola students, and the remaining requests will each be reviewed individually once the April 2 deadline arrives.

"We're going to do whatever we can to accomodate everyone," McMahon said. "If we have to make things a little tight for the next few years, we're willing to do that to get everyone placed happily."

Since school assignments were made, the district has been hosting tours and open houses at each of the district's campuses. The tours, which are essentially presentations by each school's principal and a few teachers, have averaged 20 to 30 parents each, many of whom had already submitted transfer requests, McMahon said. He added that many parents, some of whom had pre-conceived notions about one campus or another, have had their eyes opened by attending the tours.

"Once people get out and visit the schools, they're pleasantly surprised," he said. "Once people find out about the test scores and the work teachers are doing, they're amazed."

Not to be forgotten in the transition process are the approximately 1,000 students who come from outside the district boundaries to attend Fountain Valley's schools, whose parents have their own set of concerns. McMahon explained that transfer students already attending school in the district would be assigned to the same schools they were already attending, while new transfer requests would not be placed until all students within the district had been placed. He added that it was very important for the district to make those students--and their parents--feel welcome.

"We need them as much as they need us," McMahon said. "We'd have to let go of a lot of staff and maybe close another school if we didn't have them. So they responded very positively to feeling like they were wanted."