Community Group Looks to Unify
Evergreen Valley School District

A local parent group from the Evergreen area has been researching educational alternatives for students in their community, and have recently embarked on a new strategy. The group, a coalition of parents and community members in the Silver Creek Valley Country Club area, have considered a couple of options, including starting a small charter high school at either Silver Creek or Evergreen high schools. Now the group has hired attorneys to petition the county to allow the Evergreen Valley schools to unify, which would give the Evergreen Valley School District the right to annex EVHS and possibly SCHS from the control of the ESUHSD.

Prior to the opening of Evergreen Valley High School, disputes arose concerning the attendance boundary lines for Evergreen. Parents in the Silver Creek attendance area who thought they would be allowed to send their children to EVHS were shocked to find they were not included in the ESUHSD’s determined boundaries for the new high school, which resulted in a series of complaints lodged against the Board of Trustees. In Team Unruly’s opinion, many of these complaints came from parents in more affluent areas who worried about their children attending Silver Creek, a school that also serves students from lower socio-economic areas, some of whom live in areas associated with gang activity. Team Unruly learned from our Silver Creek correspondent that a group of parents looked into opening a small charter school at Silver Creek but abandoned the idea when they learned they could not exclude certain students from attending the charter under California law.

This new tactic of annexing the high schools might prove successful. The ESUHSD is one of a handful of non-unified school districts in the state, and precedent already exists to support school district unification. If this petition is approved, the new district has the right to draw their boundary line as they see fit.

If the plan fails, the group’s last resort is to open a new high school in the Coyote Valley. Surprisingly, opening a new ESUHSD high school in this location was one of the key platforms of Trustee Craig Mann’s reelection campaign.

Although the group’s aggressive strategy seems to be rooted in socio-economic perceptions and divisions, the current state of ESUHSD’s diminished budget, the growing complaints against superintendent Zendejas, as well as the antagonistic stance of the Board of Trustees has not helped to alleviate tensions between the community and the district. A decision in the case could come by June of 2005.