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Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009

Experts oppose transfer of Oro Loma Elementary School to Fresno County district

It would be costly and likely force the closure of campus.

FIREBAUGH -- A campaign to transfer administration of the Oro Loma Elementary School to a Fresno County school district may cause more harm than good, residents learned at a special meeting Wednesday night.

Three residents in the area, which is characterized not by a main street or any commercial outfit, but by the nine-classroom schoolhouse that opened in the early 1950s, filed a petition with the Fresno County Office of Elections in June to transfer governance of the school from the Dos Palos-Oro Loma School District in Merced County to the Firebaugh-Las Deltas School District in Fresno County.

At Wednesday night's meeting, both school districts formally announced they did not support the power transfer petition and asked twin oversight committees from Fresno and Merced counties to deny the change.

Residents in the district forced a series of public meetings after filing a petition alleging that a cost-cutting move by the school district board to close the sixth through eighth grades at the school, causing those students to attend Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, made the entire Oro Loma school vulnerable to closure.

Peter E. Denno, a Fresno attorney representing the Firebaugh-Las Deltas district said the residents were "almost certain to fail" in their quest to keep Oro Loma Elementary School open.

"As it stands, DPOL has only closed the sixth through eighth grades," Denno said. "Oro Lomans would be better off maintaining the status quo. So would Firebaugh. So would Dos Palos."

A preliminary decision by the Merced and Fresno countywide committees on school district organization could decide the fate of the K-5, 100-student schoolhouse.

If the committees deny the petition, the movement must begin anew. If the committees allow the petition, the territory transfer must be approved by the state board of education before it will go to a vote of the people in the entire Dos Palos-Oro Loma and Firebaugh-Las Deltas districts.

Oro Loma Elementary School is located in Fresno County, 10 miles south of Dos Palos High School and 12 miles west of Firebaugh. It serves students within the 421 square miles of agricultural land that formerly defined Oro Loma as a stand-alone school district.

The school joined the Dos Palos-Oro Loma district on July 1, 1993 as part of a three district unification process.

Residents from the area showed up in force at the meeting Wednesday. Eight residents from the Oro Loma area -- most of them parents -- spoke in favor of a separation, while five Firebaugh representatives voiced their opposition.

Priscilla Del Bosque-Schouten is one of the primary proponents for the redistricting.

"Oro Loma is a treasure. It is a treasure for this community that has nothing but a school," she said.

In the seven-page petition endorsed by more than 25 percent of all registered voters in the former Oro Loma district boundaries, residents allege that the school does not get enough attention by the current school district administration and would fare better in the Firebaugh-Las Deltas district, which has higher test scores.

"In a few years, the board may realize its error," the petitioners wrote in June. "But by then our extraordinary Oro Loma School may be lost."

Wednesday night, it became clear that their request for a transfer would make Oro Loma's closure imminent.

If the territory transfer were approved Firebaugh-Las Deltas "will most likely be financially compelled to discontinue the operation of the Oro Loma School as a school site and transport all of the students residing within the boundaries of the transferred territories" to Firebaugh daily, according to a position paper from the school district, filed with the two-county committee.