TUSTIN : Elementary School to Reopen in Shuffle

The Tustin Unified School District has decided to reopen one school and reshuffle students at two nearby campuses to even out attendance boundaries and compensate for growing enrollment.

The boundary change will affect about 250 elementary school students. The district’s Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to reopen Sycamore Elementary School and rearrange the boundaries for Marjorie Veeh and Tustin Memorial elementary schools.

This is the the first time since 1979--when the district closed five elementary schools because of a shrinking student population--that an elementary school has been reopened, said Hollis Griffin assistant superintendent for the district.

In the past four years, the district has had a growth rate of 200 to 300 new students a year. Contributing to that growth is development in the Tustin Ranch area, officials said.

The largest group of students at Tustin Memorial to be affected by the change live north of Irvine Boulevard. Next year, this group will move to Sycamore Elementary.

“A big percentage of those children will now have less distance to travel to get to school,” said Griffin, adding that the recently approved boundary is almost identical to the attendance area Sycamore had before it was closed.

Parents have shown little reaction to the change, board member Jane Bauer said, but there was some concern over attendance levels the change will cause at the three schools.

The new boundaries will leave Veeh’s student population virtually unchanged at 600 students and will give Sycamore and Memorial about 300 students each. District officials said they expect Sycamore and Memorial to match Veeh’s attendance level in three or four years.